


Lifeline

by Decafdino



Series: Blood in the Water [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Brotherly Love, Completed, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Depressed Gavin Reed, Detectives, Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, Familial Love, Family, Family of Choice, Gavin Reed Backstory, Gavin Reed-centric, Gavin is an overprotective guardian, Hank Anderson & Connor Friendship, Hurt, I'd like to say I've got pretty good grammar, Kidnapping, Non-Consensual Drug Use, POV Connor, POV Connor (Detroit: Become Human), POV Gavin Reed, POV Male Character, POV Original Character, POV Original Male Character, POV Upgraded Connor | RK900, Peaceful Revolution, Platonic Love, Platonic Relationships, Post-Game(s), Post-Pacifist Best Ending (Detroit: Become Human), Protective Gavin Reed, Recovery, Rescue, Soft at some points as well, This is basically a continuation of the story, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, Whump, light humor, part of a series, updates on Fridays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-22
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-03-09 14:22:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 46,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18918787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Decafdino/pseuds/Decafdino
Summary: Reed is always in a bad mood. He has become known around the precinct as the hotheaded loose cannon, which is why everyone is surprised to see how he reacts to the new recruit spilling hot coffee all over him on his very first day.It seems like someone's keeping a secret, and Nines is determined to find the truth. On top of doing that and solving the case, he must walk through the minefield that is Gavin's temperamental attitude towards everythinganddeal with the struggles of deviancy. Although most would say he has his work cut out for him, everything seems to be going relatively smoothly- at least as much as they can be with Reed- that is, until someone gets a littletooclose to uncovering an underlying plot that revolves around the whole city, maybe even the whole country.Across town, someone plans to get their message through to the public; a task they’ll accomplish by any means necessary- even if it takes a couple of murders and few torture sessions along the way.This is a story about family: who it is, what it means, and just how far some will go for theirs.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SmallBirdRising](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmallBirdRising/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He pushed through the glass doors with the DPD logo on them, and was immediately greeted with a loud, “New recruit coming through!”
> 
> Ethan looked around, trying to spot a familiar face. Luckily, no one seemed surprised to see a rookie looking lost in the bullpen, and he was thankfully waved over to where a man in around his early 30’s was sitting. It wasn’t the guy he was looking for, but maybe this dude could help him.
> 
> He strolled over to the desk and introduced himself, the coffee in his hand sloshing around. “Hi, there. I’m, uh- well I guess you’ve already heard I’m new,” he internally facepalms. "Hey, um, I was hoping you could point me in the direction of somebody?”
> 
> “Who’re you looking for?” his partner asked.
> 
> “Detective Gavin Reed? I was supposed to meet him here, but I was obviously a little late.”
> 
> “Well, today’s your lucky day kiddo. Check your six,” he huffed.
> 
> Ethan whipped around. Big mistake. He bumped into the guy standing behind him, spilling coffee all over, well, everything. He looked up, thoroughly embarrassed.
> 
> His eyes lit up, however, when he saw who it was. “Heeeey, Gavin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **HELLO NEW READERS!**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> I'm only realizing just now that most people have been finding this story through its sequel, which is totally awesome! Moreover, because a lot of you might get stuck and might just stop reading this fic altogether, I want to just say thanks for clicking! I wrote this as a fledgling writer, and to be honest I didn't really know what I was doing. THE SEQUEL IS A LOT BETTER. I promise. After I finish writing the second story, I plan to come back here and do a lot of editing and rereading (because a lot of this is first draft stuff.) I also live strictly by a 4,000 or higher word count for each chapter currently, though this method was one I only adopted after I finished writing this story.
> 
> Also big boi disclaimer: this story revolves around main characters from the game, but also has an original character that heavily influences the plot and is treated like one of the protagonists. It was a hard decision for me to put an oc into this story, but quite frankly there wouldn't be much of one without him. If that's not your thing, sorry. Might I suggest "I Need A Gangster"? It's got smut, but I found that I really like the author's writing style and the idea for the AU is honestly pretty cool.
> 
> Basically what I'm trying to say is try not to get stuck reading this, because my syntax, dialogue, and overall storytelling do improve. Thanks!

The precinct was bigger than he thought. It was a lot nicer than he thought it would be, too. He pushed through the glass doors with the DPD logo on them and was immediately greeted with a loud, “New recruit coming through!” That was exactly what he expected.

Ethan looked around, trying to spot a familiar face. Luckily, no one seemed surprised to see a rookie looking lost in the bullpen, and he was thankfully waved over to where a man in around his early 30’s was sitting. It wasn’t the guy he was looking for, but maybe this dude could help him.

He strolled over to the desk and introduced himself, the coffee in his hand sloshing around. “Hi, there. I’m, uh- well I guess you’ve already heard I’m new,” he internally facepalms. Wow, great start.

“You’re...Ethan, right?” the man asked, leaning back in his chair. Ethan nodded, maybe a little too emphatically. “Nice to meet you, then, Ethan. I’m Connor.” The man shook his hand.

“You sort of look familiar…do I know you?” Ethan asked, getting a strange sense of deja vu.

His partner, sitting at the opposite desk, scoffed. “Nah, I think he’s just got one of those faces,” he grunted, not looking up from his computer. Ethan just assumed it was some inside joke.

Connor smiled. “I was on the news a couple of times. Maybe you saw me there?”

“Oh, uh, maybe…I don’t know, though. I don’t think that’s it.” He paused, finally shrugging and pushing the thought away. “Well, whatever. I’ll probably remember later or something.” He scanned the room again. The cup was starting to burn his hand a little. “Actually, I was hoping you could point me in the direction of somebody.”

“Who’re you looking for?” The man’s partner still hadn’t looked up from his computer.

“Detective Gavin Reed? I was supposed to meet him here, but I was a little late.”

This got the man’s attention. The two partners exchanged a quick look, which only confused him. Had he said something weird?

“Whatcha want with Reed?” his partner questioned.

“Just got his coffee for him. It’s kinda really hot.” He shifted his weight uncomfortably from foot to foot.

“Well, today’s your lucky day kiddo. Check your six,” he huffed.

Ethan whipped around. Big mistake. He bumped into the guy standing behind him, spilling coffee all over, well, everything. It felt like the whole precinct went silent. He looked up, thoroughly embarrassed.

His eyes lit up, however, when he saw who it was. “Heeeey, Gavin.”

There was a long pause as everyone tensed in anticipation to see how Reed was going to react to this rookie who was probably about to get himself killed by another officer on his very first day. Finally, Gavin smiled at him. He grabbed Ethan in a sort of headlock-hug and began to ruffle his hair around. “Hey there, rat. You’re doing a great job, spilling caffeine all over me on your first day on the force.”

“Heh, sorry about that,” he laughed sheepishly through the embrace. “If you want, I can go back to the apartment and get you more clothes?”

“Nah, it’s alright. Watch this.” He went over to his desk and grabbed the jacket left on the chair, putting it on and zipping it up, effectively hiding the stain. “And just like magic, it’s gone.”

“Wow, that was so amazing. I didn’t know you were such a good magician.” Ethan joked.

“Had to embarrass you somehow. It’s legally required.”

“Maybe next time you’ll start pulling coins from my ears.”

“Ha! Anything to get you to pay the rent.” They continued to bant like this for a little while before Gavin said, “Hey, I’m gonna go grab some coffee to make up for the cup you spilled, then how about I show you the ropes a little?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Ethan watched as Gavin walked to the break room before turning his attention back to Connor, who was gaping slightly. “What?”

“Well, last time somebody spilled something on Reed, he almost broke their arm. Probably would’ve put ‘em in the hospital, too, if it hadn’t been for his partner stepping in.” Connor’s partner huffed from across the desk, intrigued. “What kinda mind control do you have over the guy to make him laugh it off?”

“Well- I mean, he’s always acted like this with me. I mean, what’s he usually like?”

“When I first tried introducing myself to him, he punched me in the stomach…” Connor mumbled, maybe a tad envious.

“He’s actually pretty cool, once you get know him. If he lets you get that far,” Ethan added.

“Whatcha guys talking about?” Gavin said from behind him, scaring the crap out of Ethan.

“Dude, you are gonna give me a heart attack!” Gavin smirked. Ethan looked back at the two men. “We were just saying how you’re such a lame loser for doing magic tricks.”

“Well, we’ll see about that when I get all the ladies performing at your birthday parties.” They began to walk further into the building.

Needless to say, Ethan and Gavin’s relationship was a surprise to the DPD, but a pleasant one.

\----

A couple of hours and a few too many cups of coffee later, the pair were now sitting at Gavin’s desk, when his partner finally showed up and sat across from them. 

“Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed,” Gavin snorted, seeing his ruffled clothes and not-too-pleasant expression.

He scoffed. “Androids don’t need sleep. And I was busy finishing the reports for the cases that you just dumped on me today.”

“Well, sorry, but today’s special. I wanted to be available to show the newbie around,” he pointed, directing his partner's attention to Ethan.

Ethan looked between the two of them. “Oh, you’re Nines, right? Gavin’s talked about you from time to time.”

The android raised an eyebrow. “I’m afraid I can’t say the same for you. Reed, care to introduce me?”

“Rat’s name is Ethan. He’s gonna be fucking around with us, so I hope the two of you don’t set this whole place on fire.”

Ethan punched him softly in the arm. “You do know I can handle myself, right?”

Gavin leaned back in his chair. “Yeah, but I don’t think that Nines here could handle you,” he winked at them.

Nines’ LED flashed yellow for a second. He smirked. “That’s odd, detective. I didn’t know you had the capacity to care about anyone but yourself.”

“You’d be right. Kid’s just a leech, honestly. Sucks all the joy right out of my soul.” He looked over at Ethan. “But I’m stuck with him.”

Ethan stared at Nines for a second, then looked back at where Connor was sitting, realization hitting his face. It was obvious to him that Ethan had only just realized that he and Connor shared similar face structures, and it probably only just occurred to him that the two were androids.

“So, how do you two know each other?” Nines asked, intrigued.

Gavin huffed. “Heh. Thought you would’ve just downloaded all your information off the internet like a stalker.”

His partner rolled his eyes. “Well, while that would typically be my first logical response, you have made it very clear you don’t like me ‘snooping around’ in your personal life.”

Gavin opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by Chris. “New report just came through. An old missing person case just got solved.”

Reed raised an eyebrow. “Solved as in they were found or-”

Miller sighed. “Homicide, down by the old docks. Pretty ugly, from the looks of it.” He glanced at Ethan. “Fowler said to bring the rookie along, too.” He walked off.

Gavin stood up. “Welp, kid. Ready to go investigate your first dead body?” he said, grabbing his keys from his desk. Ethan nodded, a tiny bit of excitement running through his veins. He regained himself. “Yeah, try not to be too happy over someone dying,” Gavin said, noting his newfound energy. He turned to Nines, who just sighed, obviously not happy that he most likely was going to have to complete more paperwork later. “C’mon, tin can. If you hurry, I’ll make Ethan sit in the back.”

Nines simply stood up and followed them out. At this point, he couldn’t resist looking a little into the pair, very interested in the close bond between them that he had somehow not heard anything about, considering all of the time he had to listen to Reed ranting angrily about his mornings. He scanned the two, promising himself that he would only go that far as to respect Gavin’s privacy, although Gavin himself was very difficult to respect. The information that popped up from the scan, however, thoroughly intrigued him.

Reed, Gavin  
Born: 10/07/2002  
Occupation: Police Detective  
Criminal Record: None

Reed-Morrison, Ethan  
Born: 04/18/2018  
Occupation: Police Officer  
Criminal Record: None

It didn’t exactly surprise Nines that they were family. Their body language suggested they were close. But as far as Nines knew, Reed had never mentioned that he had family, much less a son. It hadn’t even occurred to him that Gavin might’ve been married, or at least in a relationship. He decided to look more into it later. For the time being, he felt it would be best to simply not mention it, as such an interaction might affect their impending investigation, knowing how Gavin was about his personal life.

Nines automatically sat shotgun, causing Gavin to smirk at the android’s acceptance of his offer. Typically, Nines would be driving, as he could easily calculate the most efficient route, but he had already learned about Reed’s protectiveness of his car the hard way.

Ethan was last to get in, sitting in the backseat. Gavin pulled out of the parking lot, and they settled into their normal routine of Nines giving him alternate routes that would get them there quicker, and Gavin going the opposite direction just to spite him when he got too annoying.

Eventually, they made it, though Nines would’ve argued that they could’ve cut 15 minutes out of their travel time if Reed had just listened to him. He had learned to let it go, though, because he knew Gavin would just ignore him anyway.

The trio walked over to where there was a group of officers already standing. Officer Miller was already there, obviously waiting for them to inform them of what happened. “Thought you weren’t going to show up for a minute there.”

“Well, we probably would’ve been here sooner if he,” Reed jabbed his thumb in the direction at Nines, “hadn’t given me such shit directions.” Nines, now even more annoyed, just huffed and walked over to the body. The other detectives caught up to him, with Miller giving them the basic rundown on the case.

“Couple of teens found the body just lying in the ocean. Said they were just walking along the shore when they found it.” Nines bent down to examine the corpse, trying to find clues to analyze. The body was very mangled at this point, causing Ethan to gag a little.

“There appear to be signs of untreated wounds from varying periods. Bruising basically everywhere on the body, most likely cracked or broken ribs, a very broken nose, possibly even internal bleeding or organ damage.” The android stood up from his position over the body. “How long ago did you say that missing person case was opened?”

“A couple of months ago. Victim’s name is Amy Wood. She was reported missing by her parents when she didn’t come home from school, but they later found evidence of a break-in, meaning she had been specifically targeted. The only reasonable motive we could find for anyone to want her gone was that she was very big on advocating for android’s rights, even before the revolution,” Officer Miller glanced at Nines.

“The victim wasn’t drowned. I believe the cause of death was most likely a heart attack due to shock from her injuries. The abusers seem to have been torturing her for a very long time, most likely since she was abducted. However, there is not enough evidence to point towards the docks being the primary place they kept her, aside from the obvious seawater. The body was planted,” Nines concluded.

Gavin groaned. “Great. All we’ve got is a motive and a victim.”

“Well, hold on. If the body was planted, then obviously this was supposed to be a message to somebody, right?” Ethan piped up. “I mean, if they were just trying to get rid of the body, then they would’ve buried it, or sent it further out in the water, somewhere fewer people would’ve seen it.” The other officers looked at him, considering it. “Maybe… maybe this was a hate crime? A message to androids and their supporters. Like, ‘stand down, or this will happen to you.’”

“Well, they certainly got it through,” Miller said, looking over at the police tape, where a couple of news reporters were gathering.

“It would make sense to try to scare the public out of speaking up, yes. Especially since everyone’s been so on edge ever since Markus’ demonstration,” Nines said, thinking out loud. “Unfortunately, my sensors are unable to detect where the culprits might have come from, so that’s another dead end.”

Detective Reed yawned. “Well, maybe it's better to sleep on it anyway. Can’t do shit just standing around here.”

As much as Nines hated to admit it, Reed was probably right. Whoever had done this knew what they were doing, or at least they were extremely careful. He reluctantly agreed to let the detectives go home, watching the pair as they walked to the car. Gavin slugged Ethan in the arm, making Ethan “accidentally” trip him. As they both laughed at themselves, Nines’ curiosity of Ethan and his relationship with his partner only grew.

\----

When they got in the car, Gavin waited a second before turning to Ethan. Ethan looked back, confused. “What?”

Gavin smiled. “Eh, nothing. Just good job on that whole message theory, kid,” he said, reaching over and ruffling Ethan’s hair.

Ethan smiled sheepishly, trying to fight off Gavin’s hand. “Oh my gosh, you’re so lame.”

Gavin let him push his hand off after a second. “What? I’m just proud of you, that’s all,” he said, turning to the wheel as he began the drive back to their apartment.

“Hey, what about Nines?” Ethan asked.

“Said he was going to grab a taxi or something. Truth is I don’t really know where he goes at night.”

“Makes sense, I guess.”

Gavin looked over at him. “Hey, when we get home, wanna watch a movie?”

Ethan looked surprised. “Oh, uh sure. Got anything in mind?”

“I was thinking… Final Destination?”

Ethan smiled. “Totally down for that.”

Gavin chuckled. “Yeah, I figured.” He paused, looking over at Ethan again. “Happy first day, rat,” he said, ruffling his hair again.

This time, Ethan didn’t fight him off. “Yeah, whatever,” he blushed, a little embarrassed from all the praise Gavin was giving him. He leaned back in his seat, replaying the day in his head. All in all, it was a pretty good first day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines felt like they were getting nowhere with the case, and Gavin was acting even more unhelpful than usual now that he had Ethan to distract him. Every interaction between the two only interested Nines further, and while most of his coworkers simply left it to rumors and gossip, he couldn’t help but feel there was something Gavin wasn’t telling him about the kid.
> 
> He was stuck between investigating the case or investigating his partner's secrets. They all got in the car, headed to the zoo where a potential lead could be. For most of the trip, Nines remained mostly quiet, LED flashing yellow every few seconds while he tried to sort out his priorities.
> 
> What all three of them failed to realize, however, was that there was someone watching, following them from the shadows of the buildings, and they were not happy.

A couple of weeks later, and they still hadn’t come much closer to solving the case. Everyone at the precinct had pretty much gotten used to Gavin and Ethan walking in together, and the initial shock of Gavin’s fondness for the kid had, for the most part, dispersed. He still continued to have a temper and make snarky remarks every chance he got, but Reed always treated the newbie with a sort of affection that no one else on the force had ever seen before. Of course, there were rumors flying around everywhere about where he was from and who he actually was, but if Gavin heard about them, he for once didn’t act out.

After his introduction to the new recruit, Nines had decided that he liked him. In fact, everyone in the precinct probably liked him, despite his close relationship with Reed. The two were a stark contrast: Ethan was always trying to be positive and open-minded about everything, while Gavin was arrogant and typically in a bad mood with the world. There was one thing that everyone knew for certain, though: The two together were mischievous as hell.

Every interaction between the two only interested Nines further, and while most of his coworkers simply left it to rumors and gossip, he couldn’t help but feel there was something Gavin wasn’t telling him about the kid. Why else would he never mention that he had a family and then just expect everybody to accept that he treated Ethan like a son? Nines suspected Fowler also knew something about it. Perhaps Reed had asked to keep his familial situation under wraps? Whatever the case, the android still knew little to nothing about the rookie and seeing that he kept getting assigned cases with him and his partner, he decided it would be in his best interest to get to know him better.

He walked over to where Ethan was sitting at his newly assigned desk, sipping coffee and reviewing his terminal. Of course, his desk was the one to the adjacent right of Detective Reed’s. He still hadn’t gotten a nameplate, though, and his space was mostly empty, leaving enough space for Nines to lean his body against without making a mess of paperwork.

Ethan looked up at Nines. “Hey, what’s up?”

“I was just thinking… it’s been a few weeks since I first met you, and I realize I have barely gotten to know you at all.” He paused, trying to find a reason to justify his curiosity. “If you are going to keep getting assigned to cases with me, then I believe it would be optimal to learn more about you.”

“Oh, sure. What do you want to know?” he replied, turning off the computer.

Nines glanced at his partner’s desk, which was currently empty, meaning he had a little while to talk to Ethan. He decided the best way to get his desired answers was to start small. “Well, first off, what made you want to be a police officer?”

Ethan looked a little surprised at the question, but he honestly didn’t know what it was that Nines wanted to know, so he answered truthfully. “Well, I always wanted to make a difference, I guess. And when I saw how unfairly people could hurt others, especially androids and stuff, I knew I wanted to protect them. Seeing how Gavin always talked about the cases he worked and how he solved crimes and helped save people really inspired me too, I suppose.”

Nines cocked his head to the side in curiosity. “And, how long have you known Gavin?”

Ethan smiled. “Oh, that’s an easier thing to answer. I’ve basically known him since forever. He’s sort of always been in my life, at least as far as I can remember.”

“Well, I can see you obviously care about him.” Nines couldn’t stop himself from smiling back. “May I ask you a personal question?”

“Oh, I thought those were personal questions, but go ahead. Shoot.” He replied.

“How do you know my partner? I am just curious because you two seem very close, and Detective Reed has a tendency of telling me very little about his personal life.”

Ethan seemed to be caught off guard by this. “Wait, did he not tell you? I thought everyone just knew already.”

“Knew what?” Nines pressured, curiosity getting the better of him.

Of course, that was the moment Gavin decided to return to his desk, or rather, noticed Nines was over at Ethan’s, and walked over to them, effectively interrupting Nines’ interview. “Hey, toaster oven, what’re you doing? Didn’t realize androids didn’t like to work.”

“Aw, c’mon, Gavin, he’s more than just a machine. Besides, we were just getting to know each other better.” Nines was surprised that Ethan was sticking up for him, but he supposed it made sense, seeing as he should have no reason to believe Nines’ questions had any malicious intent in them. At least he could take note of another one of the young detective’s traits: He was in support of androids.

“I simply thought that if I knew more about him then it would help me to cooperate and interact with him in stressful situations,” Nines said, standing up and straightening his tie.

Gavin gave him a suspicious look. “Well, I was actually meaning to talk to you. We just got a report that another missing person was found dead. This time it was at the zoo.”

Ethan stood up. “Oh, are we going right now then?”

“Yeah. Hey, why don’t you wait for us outside? I need to talk to Nines real quick.” Ethan shrugged and walked off, leaving Nines alone with Gavin.

Reed lowered his voice. “Hey, what the fuck are you doin’?” he said, showing how he really felt about Nines interrogating the kid now that he wasn’t there.

This only served to confirm that Nines’ hunch was right: there was something Reed wasn’t saying about the rookie. Why else would he be mad for talking alone with him?

“I have just told you, detective. Ethan and I were just talking to each other.” Nines knew that his defensive approach wouldn’t get him anywhere with Gavin, but if he told him that he thought Gavin was hiding something then he would never get the truth.

“Bullshit. When have you ever cared about getting to know other people? What the fuck do you want with him anyway?” It was clear that Gavin’s distrust with his partner was about to set him off.

Nines needed to remain calm. They had a crime scene to go investigate, and they could not waste time over this petty arguing. But against his better judgment, he couldn’t help thinking that if Gavin really wanted an answer then he would need to give one first. “If you really want to know, Reed, I suggest you talk to Ethan about why no one in this precinct knew he existed before he got a job here.”

Gavin was caught off guard by this. “What?” he growled.

“Isn’t it obvious? That kid is yours. Why don’t you just admit that you have a son? What’s the big deal if people knew you were related?” He said, seemingly unable to keep his mouth shut.

Gavin grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him down so that Nines’ ear was right by his mouth. “Listen here, and listen good, dipshit. You lay off that kid. I don’t care what he thinks you’re doing, but I know what you’re up to, and this is my only warning.” He pulled him closer. “I don’t think you know what you’re doing, Nines, but you must be out of your goddamn mind if you think that I have a son. Doesn’t change the fact that if I ever catch you hurting him, you better run as fast as your fuckin’ plastic legs will take you unless you wanna end up in the dumpster outside.”

And with those words, he let go of Nines and walked towards the door, shoulder checking him in the process. Nines let him walk a little ways ahead of him, making sure to keep his distance. They made it out to the car with no sign of Ethan. A second later they saw him running over.

“Where were you?” Gavin asked a little harshly.

“Sorry,” Ethan panted, a little out of breath. “I forgot where we parked the car.”

Reed’s expression softened. “Hey, what’s with the, uh,” he gestured to Ethan’s face, which was now adorned with a split lip.

“Oh, uh…” Ethan blushed. “I tripped on my way over here.”

Gavin grunted in disbelief. “Heh. I thought you knew how to watch where you’re goin’, squirt.”

“Ha, yeah. I’ll try to be more careful next time.”

“After you, then,” Gavin gestured to the car door.

They all got in the car, with Ethan sitting shotgun this time. For most of the trip, however, Nines remained mostly quiet, LED flashing yellow every few seconds.

\----

As Ethan walked out of the precinct, he wondered what Gavin needed to talk with Nines about. It was sort of obvious that Gavin hadn’t wanted him around to hear it, but he supposed it didn’t necessarily mean that they were discussing him. It was probably just some classified info for only the higher-ups, which was probably why he wasn’t being told about it. It didn’t concern him, though. This type of thing would be expected in a city like Detroit when a nationwide crisis had happened just a couple of months ago. He shrugged it off and started making his way to the car.

He stopped in his tracks when he heard muffled screaming coming from the alley by the entrance.

Crouching down, he crept over to the dumpster that blocked most of the opening to the alleyway. He peeked around and saw that there were a group of thugs beating the shit out of an android. There were also spray paint cans in their hands, and it was obvious they were trying to vandalize the police station when they had been discovered by this unlucky android.

Adrenaline kicked in, and he drew his gun. He leaped out from behind the dumpster and tried to be as intimidating as possible. “Detroit Police! Freeze!”

This got their attention, and there was a split second pause before one of them started to run straight towards him. He didn’t have time to think before he got socked in the mouth, knocking him backward, but he wasn’t about to go down. He regained his balance and dodged the second and third punches that came his way. He kicked his opponent in the ribs as hard as he could, and he could’ve sworn he heard a small crack before he was grabbed from behind and flung around, dropping his gun in the process and rolling to the side. He got up, luckily unscathed, and ran over to where the other two criminals were still standing over the android. The other two looked like they were ready to fight, but then suddenly the one who had thrown him to the ground called for them to retreat, and before Ethan could even blink they were all running away, too fast and too far for him to catch.

He knelt down beside the android, placing his hand on her shoulder. She flinched away from him, and he moved his hands away in a non-threatening manner. “Hey, hey. Are you alright?” he asked, noticing the android was trembling in fear. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to make sure you’re okay,” he said, trying to calm her down.

The android opened her mouth. “I-i…. I..”

“It’s okay if you’re too scared to talk. Just nod yes or no. Do you have a home?”

She nodded yes.

Ethan continued. “Do you want me to take you there?”

She shook her head to say no.

“Alright. Are you going to be okay?” he asked, concerned.

She indicated that she was alright.

“Okay.” He approached her slowly and offered her his hand. She took it, and he helped her up.

“You sure you’ll be alright?” he tried one more time.

“Y-yes, I’ll be fine.” She started to make her way towards presumably where she was originally going before she caught those thugs in the alley. She stopped and turned to him. “Thank you for saving me.”

He nodded and watched her go. He waited until she was out of sight before exiting after her, not wanting to make her worry that he was following her. He looked over at the parking lot and saw Gavin and Nines almost at the car. He ran over to them as fast as he could.

“Where were you?” Gavin asked.

He knew that if he told Gavin that he had just been in an alley fight he’d probably make him stay at the precinct and file a report, and he didn’t want to get the android in trouble with the police, so he decided that the best thing he could do for now was lie about it. “Sorry,” he panted. “I forgot where we parked the car.”

Reed’s expression softened. “Hey, what’s with the, uh,” he gestured to Ethan’s split lip, which he had forgotten about in the heat of the moment.

“Oh, uh…” Ethan blushed, trying to think of a believable excuse. “I tripped on my way over here.”

Gavin grunted. “Heh. I thought you knew how to watch where you’re goin’, squirt.”

“Ha, yeah. I’ll try to be more careful next time.” He squirmed a little, uncomfortable with lying to Gavin’s face.

“After you, then,” Gavin gestured to the car door.

They all piled in, and Ethan let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.  
What all three of them failed to realize, however, was that there was someone watching, following them from the shadows of the buildings, and they were not happy.

\----

They arrived at the zoo with time to spare. Ethan noticed that Nines had been unusually quiet during the car ride, and he wondered if it had something to do with what he and Gavin had spoken about earlier.

He pushed the thought from his mind. He needed to focus on the investigation, and he told himself that if Nines wanted to talk about it then he would.

Like always, Officer Miller was already there, ready to brief them on what had happened. This time, though, it was impossible to ignore the gathering crowd at the entrance.

“Looks like word’s gotten around that another psycho’s on the loose,” Gavin remarked.

Miller led them to the crime scene inside the zoo. It was definitely not a pretty sight. The first thing Ethan noticed when he walked in was the giant board advertising the zoo, except it was glitching out, and right dead center was a corpse nailed to the screen. There was a fuck ton of blood because the head was missing. This time they didn’t need Nines to tell them the cause of death. Around the blood splatterings were the words “You might think, but you can’t feel” and “We don’t bleed the same color” written in spray paint.

“Body was found at around 5:00 am by one of the caretakers, but the head wasn’t found until the sun came up.” Miller sighed.

“Yeah? What’d those maniacs do with it?” Gavin asked.

“Put it on top of the flagpole, along with one of those human rights flags.”

“That’s just sick,” Ethan said, obviously disgusted.

“We were able to identify the guy as another one of our missing victims. Stephen Edmonds. He was only reported missing a month ago, though.”

“Looks like our guys are speeding things up,” Gavin scoffed.

“The guy was also reported to have gone to numerous pro-android rallies, and he even gave a couple of speeches himself.”

“Damn.” 

“Well, at least now we have an obvious motive, and a connection,” Ethan said, trying to ignore the forensics team as they attempted get the head down for analysis. “Both vics were missing persons and android rights activists.”

“And both killers seem to have a fondness for… cruel and unusual murder scenes,” Nines added, maybe unnecessarily.

“Welp, boys. Seems we have a serial killer on our hands,” Gavin sighed.

Ethan walked over to where an empty can of spray paint lay on the ground, abandoned and useless. Nines followed him, immediately scanning the evidence.

“Whatever you’re thinking, detective, I do not believe that this can will be of any use. There are no fingerprints on it, and the small bits of fuzz stuck on the stickers indicate that the killers used gloves.”

“Thanks, Nines, but that’s not what I’m looking for.” He reached down to examine the canister, reading the label. He smirked. “They might be smart, but they’re not smart enough. Check the label for me and tell me where the nearest paint shop might be, could you?” He showed Nines the can up close, clearly displaying the label that read “Marnie’s Canvases & Co.”

Nines’ LED flashed yellow as he processed the request. “Looks like you could be on to something, Ethan. The business is a mom-and-pop store, with one location situated in the Detroit area. It’s possible our culprits could frequent there, or at least have gone there at some point.”

They both stood up, and Ethan bagged the spray paint can as evidence and handed it over before the pair walked over to where Gavin was examining the screen.

He glanced quickly at them before turning his attention back to the bloodstained board. “No fingerprints, no DNA traces, nothing.” He shook his head.

“Actually, we think we found a lead. Empty can of spray paint was left behind, and we managed to track down the store it came from- Well, Nines did, really,” Ethan smiled and pointed at Nines, not having any problem with giving the android all the credit.

Gavin turned, eyebrows raised. “Huh, really. Didn’t know he could actually be useful.”

Nines simply sighed. “Yes, detective. Analyzing evidence from crime scenes is one of my main functions, as you already knew. Besides, I cannot take all the credit. I was not the one who thought of looking up the paint shop.” He looked over at Ethan, who once again blushed at the attention.

Gavin smirked. “Nice job, rat.” He sighed. “Alright, feels like I’ve been staring at this fuckin’ thing for hours. We should probably head back if there’s nothing else. Fuckin’ killers are gettin’ too careful nowadays,” he muttered, walking back towards the entrance. The other two followed, ready to leave the decapitated body as just a memory and a case report.

Once more, however, the three were unaware of the watching eyes that were constantly scanning them. “Call Yates,” the accompanying voice huffed through his earpiece. “Tell him I just found our newest messenger.”


	3. Chapter 3

The ride back to the precinct was a pretty quiet one, but there wasn’t much to discuss. Despite himself, Ethan couldn’t help but note the tension between the two partners. He decided he would have to ask one of them about it later. Nines seemed more preferable, as they were warming up to each other, and he knew Gavin didn’t like to talk to him about problems that weren’t his own.

Just as they were re-entering the building, Ethan patted his pockets. “Crap. I forgot my phone in the car.”

Gavin tossed him the keys. “No problem. I’ll meet you inside and we can talk about what’s been bothering you.”

“But nothing’s been-”

Gavin cut him off. “Don’t give me that. I can tell something’s on your mind.”

Ethan rolled his eyes, dismissing the fact that Gavin had seen right through his facade. As he turned away, he called out, “Nothing’s wrong with me. I’m just tired.”

The only thing he received from that was, “Bullshit,” from across the room. The trip over to the car was relatively quick, but in the middle of retrieving his phone, he remembered something. He strolled over to the alley from earlier, wanting to check if he was right.

While the vandals hadn’t finished painting the wall, it was pretty clear what they intended to write. He didn’t need to read any more anti-android slogans than he had to today. He scanned the ground, hoping to find what he was looking for.

He spotted the spray paint can gleaming in the setting sun, abandoned in the earlier retreat. The label was the same as the one at the crime scene. “Interesting…” he said to himself. “Looks like our thugs and killers shopped at the same store.”

Just then, he heard a clattering from above him. Ethan whipped around, trying to spot the source of the noise. Against the bright light coming from the sunset, he could just make out a figure standing on the roof, but as soon as he blinked, it was gone. He strained to see if it was still there, but whatever he had seen up there had disappeared in an instant the moment he had turned to look at it. He stood there for a second, trying to decide if what he had seen was real or not. He slowly backed out of the alley with newfound wariness. 

When he got back to the precinct, he knew there was no avoiding Gavin, who had obviously been waiting for him at his desk. Regardless, he walked over as slowly as he could without garnering suspicion, as if to drag out the moments before Gavin went all “concerned-parent mode” on him.

“Here’s your keys back,” he said, placing them on Gavin’s desk and trying to quickly turn away, hoping that he would forget his promise to talk with Ethan about what had been bothering him. It didn’t work, and Gavin grabbed his wrist before he could remove it from the desk.

“Hey, not so fast, kid. You got something you wanna tell me?” Gavin said, pulling Ethan back over to him.

Ethan looked down. It was pretty obvious that he sucked at lying to Gavin, but he didn’t want to concern him. Gavin shifted so that even though Ethan’s eyes were pointing down he could still make eye contact with him. “Maybe it has something to do with that split lip, huh?” he prompted.

“It’s nothing,” Ethan tried to avoid the question. “Like I said, I just tripped on my way to the car.”

“Yeah, huh. Was that before or after you came out of the alley?” Gavin said. Shit, he knew about that?

Ethan’s face must’ve given his surprise away, because Gavin continued. “Don’t think you can get one past me, squirt. Y’know I’m always looking out for you.” He put his hand on Ethan’s shoulder and squeezed. “Now, you wanna tell me what you were doing back there, or am I just gonna have to watch back the security tapes?”

Ethan sighed, knowing he couldn’t stay silent forever. “I… On my way to the car, I noticed some thugs trying to vandalize the side of the police station, and I may have gotten into a fight with them. But it’s nothing, I’m fine. Really,” He quickly added.

“You’ve got some balls, kid. Tryin’ to pick a fight by yourself, heh. You get that from me, y’know,” Gavin said. This surprised him. Maybe he wasn’t as mad as he thought?

“It’s not like it matters. They got away,” he said, slightly ashamed.

“Hey, look at me.” He shook his shoulder a little. “I’m just happy you’re alright, hm?”

Ethan chuckled to himself. “Yeah, okay.”

Gavin leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. “Now, pull up a chair,” he said, nodding at the one by his desk. “We’re filing a report.” Ethan groaned. Despite his reaction, though, he was secretly glad that Gavin cared, and also that he wasn’t too mad at him.

\----

After they had finished filing the report, the two had gone off to do their separate piles of paperwork. Nines, however, had gone back to the evidence room to review what they had found. After a while, though, he knew that there was nothing new to find on their missing criminals.

He also found himself getting distracted by what Gavin had said to him earlier. He was stuck between staying away from Ethan like Gavin wanted, or getting to the bottom of whatever it was that Gavin wanted to cover up, and why he was trying so hard to not let the word get around. He also had to admit that a part of him did care about the kid as well. He decided that he would not like it if Reed severed his relationship with Ethan, as he was actually starting to appreciate his presence, which was more kind and calmer than Gavin ever was, and it was nice to have something to balance out his partner’s anger.

As he walked out of the evidence room, though, he knew he should probably reconcile with Gavin. He was the one who had been looking through his personal life without permission, something that Reed had made clear he wasn’t comfortable with. The only problem was he didn’t exactly know how to do that. His partner wasn’t the sentimental type, and the two had yet to share any close moments that would give Nines insight on how best to get on his good side. He looked over at Ethan, who was now sitting alone at his desk. Perhaps he could help.

Reed was currently not at his desk, so he was most likely taking a break from his paperwork and getting a coffee at this point to satiate his slight caffeine addiction, giving Nines some time to talk to Ethan. He walked over, wanting to make this interaction go as quickly as possible so that Reed wouldn’t catch him talking with him alone and make things worse.

Nines tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. Ethan looked up from his pile of reports that he was writing. “May I ask you for advice on something quickly?” Nines asked, glancing at the break room to make sure Gavin wasn’t coming any time soon.

“Of course,” Ethan said, once again giving the android his full attention. “What do you need?”

“I was wondering. You always seem to know what to say to Gavin when he’s upset, or just angered for one reason or another. I would like to know if you have any tips for how I can best… interact with him while he’s in a mood without making the situation worse?” Nines asked, choosing his words carefully.

Ethan considered it for a second. “Well, I know sometimes that Gavin can be difficult. He’s obviously not one to talk about his problems with others most of the time. I think if you just give him time to cool off, and stick with him, even if it’s hard, then he’ll come around. If you show him that you care, then he tends to warm up to you. It takes a lot though, but I think if you really want to be close with him then it’s worth it. I’m sure you already know this, but underneath all that gruff exterior is just a guy who really cares. Trust me,” he reassured.

That was a lot more than Nines was expecting to get, but he did appreciate the help. “Thank you, Ethan. I’ll try to keep all that in mind the next we fight.”

“No problem. If you ever need anything else, just ask. Especially if Gavin’s messing with you. I can handle it,” he joked, slamming a fist into his palm. This seemed silly to Nines, as Gavin was shorter than he was, and Ethan was even smaller, but he could tell that Ethan meant it.

He turned and walked over to his own desk, which was noticeably cleaner and less cluttered than his partner’s or Ethan’s. Yet another similarity between the two. This time, though, Nines decided to let it go, and focused on how he could try to improve his relationship with Reed.

\----

A couple of hours later, and neither of them had finished all of their paperwork. To Ethan it seemed like every time he finished one stack, two more would appear. It was getting relatively late, and all he really wanted to do was just go home and sleep off the unusual events of the day.

He yawned and stretched in his seat, trying to relieve the tension in his muscles. Gavin noticed that he looked like his brain was fried and was about to fall asleep. “Hey, kid. Why don’t you head home and I’ll finish up here?” he said, obviously thinking that Ethan needed rest.

He shook his head. “Nah, I’m fine. Just a little tired, but I can make it.”

Gavin gave him a look. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”

He stretched his back. “Yeah, but I don’t really feel like driving either.” He rested his head on his hand, but his elbow slipped out from under him and knocked over the pencil holder on his desk. His head hit the desk, but he was too tired and embarrassed to pick it up.

“Alright rat, that’s it. I’m calling you a taxi.”

He didn’t have enough energy to argue at this point, so he just mumbled out a small, “Yeah, okay,” from where his head was resting.

The taxi arrived fairly quickly, and the ride back to the apartment wasn’t anything special. He tried staring at his phone to keep him awake, but it only half-worked. He was extremely thankful when he finally arrived at the apartment.

He walked up the porch steps, fumbling with his keys, but as soon as he got to the door he noticed that it was already open. Upon further inspection he saw that it had been kicked open. Realizing that there had been a break in, Ethan suddenly lost all feelings of sleep deprivation and drew his gun and flashlight, trying to think of the best way to proceed here. If he called Gavin or anyone at the police for a false alarm, he’d probably never hear the end of it, but if there was still someone in the apartment then the backup would be appreciated. He decided to chance going in alone. 

He kicked down the door, raising his gun up and shining his flashlight around to search for intruders. He saw no one so far, so that was good. The entrance to the apartment only had a hallway that led to where it opened up into the kitchen and living room, but there were doors on either sides of the corridor that could be potential hiding places that he would need to check first.

He approached the door on his left first, which led to a sort of office room that they never really used except to store junk in. Kicking down the door, he was relieved to see no one was in there, either. Turning to walk a little farther down the hallway and to his right, he opened the door that led to a small storage closet, where he found no one there. Another thing he noticed was that he hadn’t found anything missing yet, but that didn’t mean that nothing had been stolen, as far as he was aware. Maybe whoever broke in had simply skipped these rooms to go for the bigger living room?

Whatever the case, he knew that he would have to go and check there next, anyways. He crept slowly down the hall, trying to be as quiet as possible to make out any sounds that might alert him to intruders. He finally came to the opening of the hallway, when a fist swung out at him from his left, knocking him sideways. The stumble and fall of the attack made him accidentally fire off his gun, and he heard a grunt and someone falling to their knees.

He got up, but before he could do anything someone grabbed him from behind by the neck and started choking him. They backed up into the kitchen, and Ethan squirmed to get away, losing his gun somewhere on the dark floor in the process. He was panicking, and he flailed his legs up on the counter, trying to push weight away from the guy, but it was no use. He was starting to run out of oxygen, and he couldn’t get the grip around his throat to loosen. He lifted up his hands and linked them together to create one huge fist, and using his legs to lift him up in the air for more leverage and to move him out of the way, he swung down hard on the man’s diaphragm, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to let them both drop to the floor.

Ethan landed hard on his elbow and rolled over, gasping to regain the air he had lost. He stumbled, fumbling for his phone in his back pocket and speed dialing the first number he came across: Gavin’s. The call rang twice as he got up, panting, and started running up the stairs before his attackers could catch up to him.

“Kid? What’s up?” A voice came through the speaker on the phone as he struggled to get up the stairs.

“Gavin, I- oh shit-” he said as he reached the top of the steps and was immediately greeted by another guy, who punched him in the face and sent him flying back down the stairs, phone still in hand. He groaned, lying on the ground.

“Kid? Ethan, what’s going on?” Gavin called out from the phone.

Ethan looked up and saw his gun on the floor where he had dropped it, and reached over and grabbed it, turning to face the man who was walking slowly down the stairs. He pointed the gun at him. “Stop right there, or I’ll shoot!” Ethan warned, though he was extremely terrified.

The man chuckled, and continued his descent towards Ethan, who was on his back at this point on the floor. “S-stop!” he managed to get out, before a gunshot rang out and his right arm exploded in pain. Unable to stop himself from crying out, he dropped his gun and grabbed his arm, looking over to see the man who had grabbed him earlier aiming a gun at him.

“Ethan! What the fuck was that? Ethan, talk to me kid!” He could hear Gavin freaking out over the phone, which was now a few feet away from him. He wanted so badly to say something, but his goddamn arm just hurt so much.

He whimpered as two of the three men walked over to him, and two more approached from upstairs as well. Without a word, they all started to punch and kick him, hitting his ribs and face and everywhere, one of them even stepping on his arm. This caused him to scream even louder, until the man who pushed him down the stairs said, “Alright, that’s enough. Shut him up.”

They all backed away, except for one, who stood menacingly over him. He could still hear Gavin calling out to him, but it was no use. With tears in his eyes, he pleaded quietly, “Stop, please,” before the man raised his boot and came down hard on his face, and everything went to black.


	4. Chapter 4

An alert popped up in Connor’s vision, causing him to exit stasis mode. Reading it, he checked the time. 11:14 pm. That must’ve meant it was an emergency.

He stood up from his position on the couch, unfortunately disturbing Sumo, who was sleeping on top of him. 

“Sorry, boy. I’m afraid me and Hank might have to be right back,” he said, petting the giant dog. After a second, he stood and went to go wake up Hank, whom he was sure would be none-too-pleased to get a case alert in the dead of night. 

He went over and knocked on the door. When he got no response, he opened the door and stood over the lieutenant, shaking him awake. 

“Jesus Christ, Connor! What the hell? Can’t you let a man get his beauty sleep?” he groaned, still half-asleep. 

“I apologize, Hank, but we have just received an emergency alert from the DPD with a new case that says we need to go investigate now.”

“Ugh, can’t it wait until the morning?” Hank asked, not wanting to get up. 

“Unfortunately, it cannot. There has been a reported break in and assault at Detective Reed’s residence, and we are the only other officers currently available to handle it.” This woke him up. 

“What the fuck happened to Reed?” he asked, actually sounding concerned about him. This confused Connor, as he thought the two hated each other, but he let it slide for the moment. 

“Presumably he is fine. He is the one who filed the report. It doesn’t specify who was assaulted, only that it was another officer. However, it does say that we should come as soon as possible.” Connor answered. 

Hank pulled himself out of bed, with surprisingly little convincing from Connor. Trusting that his partner would be ready in a few minutes, Connor returned to his seat on the couch, where he continued to pet Sumo until he walked out. 

When they arrived at Gavin’s apartment, Connor was surprised to see Gavin standing around, arguing with Fowler. As they stepped out of the car, he caught on to the tail end of the conversation. 

“-my house, Fowler, I should be able to go in there!” he yelled. 

“No, you need to calm down, and sit your ass on the pavement while the forensics team takes care of this!” Fowler said, obviously not in the mood to deal with Gavin’s bullshit. 

“He’s my kid, that’s my kid who’s hurt, and you’re not even letting me go into my fucking apartment!” Connor caught a glimpse of a tear. Was Gavin… crying?

Hank walked up to him. “What’s goin’ on that you had to call me in the middle of the fuckin’ night?”

Fowler sighed. Gavin turned to look at him, and then back at Fowler. “You sent Anderson on this?! What the hell?!” His anger was now renewed at the sight of the lieutenant. 

“Reed, I’m gonna need you to calm the fuck down. These two are completely fit to handle this case, and you are in no state to fuckin’ complain about who I choose to assign this to,” Fowler seemed to be having no problem with telling Gavin to take a step back. 

“Can someone just explain what the fuck is going on?!” Hank said, impatient. 

Another sigh. Gavin looked down. “Just get in there, Miller will tell you what happened.”

Gavin sniffed. “It’s Ethan,” He muttered quietly. 

“It’s what?” Hank said, not hearing what he said. 

Gavin looked up at him. “It’s Ethan. Someone broke in and…” He trailed off, unable to continue. He had tears in his eyes. 

Hank’s expression softened. He went over to Gavin, and to Connor’s surprise, pulled him into a hug. He knew that Hank related to Gavin’s situation and not being able to be there for your kid.

He had enough sense to step away and let the two have their moment. Walking into the apartment, he could see that there had been a definite struggle. He saw Officer Miller, and walked over to him.

“Where’s Hank?” he asked, looking around. 

“He’s…” Connor thought for a second. “He’s outside talking with Fowler and Gavin. He might be a second. Would you mind briefing me on what happened?”

Officer Miller sighed. “Ethan went home earlier tonight, alone, because Gavin was being held up at the office with paperwork. A couple minutes later, Gavin got a phone call from him. Apparently he sounded like he was panicking and out of breath, before there was a thud. Said he heard someone yell out a threat, and then there was a gunshot and a scream. That’s all I got from Gavin.”

Connor nodded. He started going over the already labeled evidence. Ethan had obviously put up a fight, with there being things thrown around everywhere, especially in the kitchen. This was a lot more damage than one person could do, though, so this was definitely an organized group and not just a single person. 

He walked over to where a gun was laying on the floor, and checked to see if all the bullets were still there. There was one missing, meaning he had tried to shoot someone, and seeing two pools of blood, he probably had hit his mark. Connor walked over to one of the blood spots and analyzed the DNA from it. 

DNA Analysis: Bennet, Elijah  
Sample date: < 2 hours ago

At least he had gotten the name of one the people responsible. The blood was only in this spot, where as the other pool had left a trail towards the door. He bent down and analyzed it, fearing the worst. 

DNA Analysis: Reed-Morrison, Ethan  
Sample date: < 2 hours ago

Connor sighed, knowing Detective Reed would not be happy to hear about this. His vision told him he was ready to reconstruct something, so he went through and tried analyze what he could. He saw a figure on the floor, obviously Ethan, who was holding his gun and pointing at something. Then another figure appeared, shooting him. His reconstruction told him that the men had also injured Ethan further than this, presumably knocking him out, and dragged him out the front door. He rewound to get a better look at what it was he had been almost about to shoot at. The gun was aimed at the staircase, and a figure was standing there as well. He rewound further, seeing that Ethan was pushed down the stairs and had dropped his phone and grabbed the gun. 

He ended the reconstruction, now heading over to the kitchen, where he saw a complete mess of a struggle had been made. Another reconstruction appeared, and he looked through it. Ethan had been grabbed from behind and choked, explaining why he was out of breath. He managed to get away and call for help before he was pushed down the stairs. Connor rewound once again and saw the beginning of the attack, how Ethan had begun to search the house, obviously aware that they had had a break in. How someone had punched him, and he had accidentally fired his gun. He ended the reconstruction, learning all he had to inside the apartment.

He walked outside, hoping that the trail of blood might lead him to something. Unfortunately, it ended at the edge of the sidewalk. His kidnappers had taken him in a vehicle, a car most likely, but there was no sign of where they were or where they went.

Connor sighed, locking eyes with Hank, who was sitting on the curb with Gavin. He shook his head, which caused his partner to sigh as well.

\----

Ethan woke up to a bright light shining in his face. He closed his eyes and tried to block the light with his hand, before crying out in pain as his arm started bleeding. His whole body ached, especially his arm and head. What had happened last night? Where was he?

He sat up, and tried to ignore the pain in his sides. The floor was extremely cold. Well, the whole room was extremely cold. He shivered, trying not to move his arm too much, and stood up. Looking around, he saw the whole place was made out of rusted metal, explaining the freezing temperature. The only source of light came from a small window at the top of the wall, near the ceiling, too high for him to reach.

There were a couple of doors, too. Apart from that, though, the place was barren. He tried opening one of the doors as best he could, but it was locked, and he probably couldn’t force it down without his other arm in tact. He tried the other door. It was locked, too.

He slid down, leaning on the door, out of options. It didn’t help that his body was extremely tired, and he probably had a broken nose. He reached up to feel his face, and flinched when he touched it. Yep, definitely broken. He sighed, growing drowsier by the second. Everything was so cold and uncomfortable, and yet his body was so tired he couldn’t even remember what he had been doing yesterday. He mentally talked himself into taking a nap, because what else could he do?

\----

He woke up again, this time because someone had opened the door, and he had fallen through the doorway. He was a little disoriented, so when someone grabbed him by the arm he stumbled along with them. Being slammed up against a metal wall definitely helped to wake him up, though.

He couldn’t stop himself from crying out in pain; his initial wounds had just been reawakened by this new force, and someone shoved his head up against the wall as well, putting a cloth in his mouth and tying it around his head, gagging him. He tried to squirm and get away, but someone grabbed him by his injured arm and turned him to face the other way so that his back was against wall now instead. This caused all struggles to stop, as the only thing Ethan could think of at that moment was the agonizing pain in his arm. He barely noticed the people putting cuffs around his wrists, or that he had sunken to his knees on the floor. 

“Get him up,” a voice from above him sounded. He was grabbed roughly underneath his arm and brought to his feet. He was then dragged over into the corner of the room, where an old metal hook was hanging from the ceiling. They strung him up by the cuffs on his wrists using the hook.

He looked around at whoever else had come in the room, but at this point it was too dark to make out anything but the outlines of figures. He started to tremble, whether out of fear or the cold, when one of them approached him with a knife. He tried to back away, but his toes could barely touch the floor, and the tension of being hung by his wrists only made his arm hurt worse when he tried to move.

The figure grabbed him by the hair and lifted his chin up so that his neck was exposed, placing the knife against it. “Here’s how this is gonna work, kid. You’re gonna do what you’re told and help us deliver a little message, and in return we might not kill you. If you don’t,” the figure chuckled, “well, let’s just say you don’t wanna find out what we’ll do to you. Got it?”

Ethan whimpered as a response. “Good. Let’s begin,” he said, ripping off the gag and removing the knife from his throat. The man looked at him up and down. “First things first,” he cracked his knuckles, “looks like we gotta rough you up a little.”

That statement was immediately followed with a punch to the gut. He doubled over as much as he could restrained the way he was, and groaned out in pain, looking up at the man once more. He received another hit, this time in the face. He could tell that he would probably get a black eye from it, but at least the man seemed satisfied with the damage he had done.

“Vallejo! Get your ass in here!” could be heard from the opened doorway. The man, who Ethan now noted was called “Vallejo” grumbled and headed out the door followed by the other two figures, not bothering to close it and leaving Ethan alone for the moment.

He hung his head for a second, trying to get a better grip on reality through all the pain. He was sweaty despite the temperature, and his head felt like the whole room was spinning. He blinked hard, trying to clear his vision, which helped a little. He looked back up at where his hands were restrained. He got an idea.

Slowly but surely, he tried sliding his hand out of the cuff, hoping his sweat would act like a lubricant. After a few minutes, he had successfully freed his left hand and dropped to the floor, cuffs still attached to his right wrist. He creeped quietly to the door, acutely aware that whatever the guy had been called away about probably wouldn’t distract him for long. Peering around, he saw that the door led to an empty hallway with a couple of doors that probably branched out to other rooms. Wherever he was, it seemed pretty much abandoned, which was all the more reason to get the hell out of here.

The hall turned to the left at the end, and Ethan saw that there was an open door near the end, too. Creeping closer, he could hear yelling coming from the room, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying, and frankly he didn’t care. He stopped right by the doorway, and peeked around quickly to look in the room. The two occupants were still distracted by each other, so he quickly ran to the other side of the door before he heard one of them say, “Go and bring him to me,” and the beginning of footsteps coming his way. 

He had to think fast. He ran down the hall and turned, spotting a large crate that he jumped behind and hid. He tried to slow down his breathing and listened quietly, praying that the footsteps weren’t coming his way. But to his alarm, they turned and seemed to head back to the room that he had come from.

“What the fuck?! He’s not here!” The footsteps came running back to the room behind him, and Ethan’s heart started to beat faster and faster.

“What do you mean he’s not there?”

“I don’t know, he’s just gone!” The voice replied angrily.

“You idiot! Call the others, start searching all the rooms!” The other voice commanded.

The footsteps started coming closer, and he knew he needed to do something or he would be discovered. He looked around, but there was nowhere to go except further down the hall. He started to panic, and the footsteps sounded like they were almost right by him. Without another choice, he started to run down the hall as fast as he possibly could.

“Hey, you! Stop right there!” The voice behind him called out, but there was no way in hell that Ethan would stop running. The hallway made another turn, so without anywhere else to go he continued down it. Behind him, he could hear more doors opening, but he didn’t turn and look.

Another turn down the hall, and he could see a door at the end, a couple of yards away. He started to believe that he might make it out when he heard a loud bang and his left leg exploded into pain, causing him to trip and roll on the floor. He grabbed his leg, realizing he had been shot. He looked back, and saw a woman holding a gun, walking slowly towards him. He tried crawling away, but it was no use and she easily caught up to him. He continued to crawl until she stepped on his injured leg, screaming out in pain. Once she removed her shoe, she leaned down to his ear. “Don’t move another fuckin’ inch unless you want to be shot again,” she whispered, and then stood up.

At this point Ethan had lost all the energy to move at all and just layed on the floor pathetically until he heard more footsteps approaching. A pair of shoes stopped in front of him, and the figure they belonged to kneeled down and lifted up his chin to force Ethan to look at him.

“So,” it grumbled. “This is the brave little detective that got in the way of our plans? He looks pathetic.”

He swatted the man’s hand away and tried to push himself up on his elbows. He backed up against the wall, looking between the two of them. “Stay back!” He yelled, raising his hands up and balling them into fists. He didn’t really know what he could do with an injured arm and leg, but he had made it this far and he wasn’t about to give up.

A hand lunged at his head and grabbed the front of his chin, slamming his head against the wall behind him. It held him there, unable to move. “Not another word from you,” the man said.

Without thinking, Ethan bit down hard on his hand. The man yelled out in pain and jumped back, removing his hand from his throat. “Gah! The little fucker bit me,” he said, glaring at Ethan. Then, surprisingly, he gave a menacing smile. “I like it when they fight. But, we have to get him back to the room, so drug him if you need to,” He turned and walked away.

Ethan turned his terrified stare back at the woman, who was now reaching into her pocket for something. He didn’t want to find out what it was, but before he could even think about moving she brought her hand down on his windpipe and once again his head hit the wall. Her grip was tight, and he was struggling to breathe, struggling to move, struggling to do anything. He tried uselessly to reach up with his good arm and remove her hand, but she was too strong for him. She found what she was looking for and brought it up to the light for a second. His eyes widened when he saw that it was a syringe. He tried once more in vain to get away, but the woman held his neck tight as she plunged it into the side of his throat and injected him with whatever was in it.

She let go when she had inserted the entire substance into his veins. He fell to the floor, coughing, but something was wrong. Everything was starting to feel really heavy, and he could barely lift his head up. She flipped him over and started to drag him back the way they had came, with his head lolling to the side uselessly. Even though he wanted to struggle, it felt like there was a weight pushing down on his mind, and he closed his eyes before letting sleep come for him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - This note is very long, so if you'd like to skip it, feel free to.
> 
> Hey guys! I just wanted to say thank you for all of the hits that this piece has received. I honestly didn't expect this story to get this much attention in so little time. I know that to some people 200+ views might not seem like a lot in the grand scheme of things, but I appreciate every single one of you for taking the time to read this. Truthfully this is probably the most popular thing I've ever posted online, and it's also the first time I've ever written something on and posted to this website, so thanks for bearing with me as I figure this all out (I'd also like to say that tips for how I could better tag this/label it would also be highly appreciated, and if you find some spelling/grammatical error, feel free to notify me in the comments.)
> 
> Some of you may have also noticed that I posted the first few chapters all together on the same day I published this, which also happened to be the same day I got my ao3 account. The truth is I just got really excited about writing the story, and since I wasn't aware that you had to be put on a waiting list to get an invite request until after I started writing, I may have already written like the first 9 chapters. I'll probably slow down with uploads for now, though, so that I can have some more time to edit and review the little minor details to keep up with the character and plot consistency. I don't really have an upload schedule planned out yet, but I was thinking somewhere along the lines of once a week, just to see how that works with the things I have to do irl.
> 
> To be honest, I originally didn't think I was even going to write this, much less post it online. I got this idea in the middle of the night, but I didn't really do anything to flesh it out until a couple of days ago. My sister and I are both really big fans of dbh, and she was feeling a little down recently, so I decided to tell her about it. She liked it enough that she encouraged me to write the first chapter, which I showed to her. She enjoyed it so much that she pushed me to keep writing it, so I did. I just wanted to help cheer her up, but slowly I started to get more and more invested in the plot as well. I was still unsure about putting it here, though. I used to be embarrassed about reading fanfic, even if it was only casually, and this is really my first experience ever writing it. I also wasn't sure about posting a story with an oc, because I felt like it might make it seem artificial and unrealistic to the universe of Detroit and its characters. The reason that I decided to have Ethan be important to the plot is that I wanted to have a specific dynamic with Gavin that no existing character seemed to fit. However, my sister really helped me to take that first chapter and put it out it into the world, and I'd like to say that thanks to the response I've gotten I have become more confident in my writing abilities.
> 
> This has also helped me practice writing dialogue in character. My experience writing this has encouraged me to keep writing, and if you guys would like to see more of the story after I'm done writing this one, then I am totally down to make this a series, along with focusing more on other characters as well.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Gavin rubbed his eyes. It felt like he hadn’t slept in years, but it had only been a day. All he really wanted to do was continue sitting on the curb next to his apartment. Everywhere else he went just reminded him that his kid was missing.

To say that he blamed himself would be an understatement. He had been the one to push Ethan to go home without him. He couldn’t even go into his damn house, because he’d be violating a crime scene. It’s not like he wanted to, though. He didn’t want to see all of the knocked down furniture, the police tape, the blood. God, the blood. When he had heard that gunshot over the phone, he was terrified that he had just heard Ethan die. He was angry, but only at himself for letting this shit happen to the kid. He was mostly just scared. All he wanted to do was wrap Ethan in a hug and never let go, but that was impossible.

After the forensics team had cleared out, Fowler forced Reed to come back to the DPD, knowing that if he left him alone he would probably screw with the crime scene and then go off and get himself killed. But now he was just sitting alone in his car, unable to do anything except blame himself. He didn’t want to go inside the building and have the whole precinct see that he was crying. He didn’t want to look over at Ethan’s desk just to see that it was empty. He felt so powerless, but he couldn’t fucking do anything. And if he felt powerless, then he knew the kid must probably be scared for his own damn life.

He didn’t know what had happened, or why someone would even want to kidnap Ethan. He always thought it was impossible for him to upset anyone, much less give them a reason to want to hurt him. He racked his brain, trying to remember something, anything that Ethan did that might have caused this mess. He thought back to earlier yesterday when he’d told him that he’d spotted a group of thugs trying to vandalize the police station. Didn’t he say that they had gotten away, though?

He looked over at the alley, then at the building’s entrance, then back at the alley. After considering it for a second, he decided investigating this himself would be easier than having to face everybody in the DPD.

He finally got out of his car and walked towards the alley. The first thing he noticed was that there was an unfinished work of graffiti on the side of the building, advertising similar slogans to the ones that they had found at the zoo. He spotted a spray paint can lying next to the wall. Just as he went to bend down and pick it up, he heard a voice from behind him.

“What are you doing, Detective Reed?” Nines asked suspiciously.

Gavin whipped around and immediately stood up. “What’s it to you?” he asked, trying to put on his normal tough guy act.

Nines was unfazed. “Nothing. It’s just that, by the looks of it, detective, you were in the middle of vandalizing the side of the police station.” He started walking closer to Gavin, who backed up.

“What, you think I did this?” he asked, indignant.

“Not unless you give me a reason to think otherwise,” Nines heavily implied that he was looking for the truth.

“I don’t have anything to prove to you,” he retorted. The last thing he needed right now was Nines interrupting him.

“Then you won’t mind,” Nines said, gripping his arm, “if I tell the director that you’ve been out here.” The android started dragging him along towards the entrance to the alley.

“Hey, let go of me, you plastic prick!” Gavin struggled to get out of Nines’ iron grip. Nothing seemed to be working.

“Not unless you’re willing to share what you’re doing back here,” Nines said, stopping for a second to give Gavin an expectant look.

Anger bubbled up inside him. Looking Nines straight in the eye, he spat on his shoe and said, “Bite me, toaster oven.”

“Wrong answer,” was all Nines said, and before Gavin could react the android grabbed him and lifted him into a fireman’s carry.

“What the hell, Nines? Let me the fuck go!”

He didn’t answer, nor did he stop moving toward the entrance to the DPD. The only thing that Gavin could do was flail in the air like a toddler as his partner carried him through the bullpen and set him down in one of the interrogation rooms. Nines shoved him into a chair and closed the door behind them. When Gavin tried to get back up he shoved him back in his seat and raised an eyebrow.

“Well?”

“What?” Gavin growled, looking away and crossing his arms. He knew he was acting stupid, but he also knew that if he told Nines that he was trying to look for evidence that could lead him to Ethan, he would never leave him alone, and Fowler would never let him leave his sight.

“I have all the time in the world, detective. Do you want to tell me the truth, or do you want to be stuck in here with me for the entire day?”

“Y’know, it’s funny, but I don’t think I really like either of those options,” Gavin said, trying again to get up only to have Nines shove him once more into the chair.

“You realize I’m not letting you leave until I get a believable answer, right?” He said.

“Why does it even matter what I was doing anyway, huh?” Gavin challenged. 

“Because you seemed like you were investigating something, and as far as I’m aware we were not assigned another case. Unless you really were just painting the side of the building with anti-android propaganda?” he pushed.

He scoffed. “Do you really think I’d waste my time doing shit like that?” He tried to avoid the accusation.

“I don’t know, would you?”

This was getting him nowhere. Groaning, he rubbed his face and tried not to say something he was going to regret, however difficult that might be right now. “Look, Nines. I promise I wasn’t doing anything illegal. I just need to get back there and check something, which means I’m not really in the mood to do this right now.”

He looked him in the eyes, hoping that Nines would take his sincerity as a hint that he just needed to get out of there and look for his damn kid. However, the android simply raised his eyebrows. “Why should I let you do that?”

That was all it took to make Gavin snap. He slammed his fist on the table. “Because my goddamn nephew has been abducted god knows where and you’re trapping me in here on the basis of I was fucking vandalizing a fucking wall! He could be hurt, or worse, dead, and all you fucking care about is whether or not I was making a goddamn art project!” He leaned back, letting his words sink in. “He could be dead,” he whispered, more to himself than to Nines. He put his head in his hands, suddenly sick at the thought of losing Ethan.“He could be dead, and it’s all my fault,” he continued to mumble.

Then there was a hand on his arm. He looked up and saw that Nines had changed his entire expression. “We will find him, Gavin. We’re not giving up that easily.”

He stared back at his partner, desperately wanting to believe his words were true.

\----

Once again, Ethan woke up in the goddamn room. This time, though, it felt like he could barely lift his head up, and he was sitting in a chair. Someone grabbed him by his hair and lifted his face up, probably checking to see if he was awake. A second later they let go, and his head flopped back down on his chest.

“Do you know one of the greatest things about using narcotics?” a voice came from his right and started pacing around the room. “They always seem to leave such… interesting after effects on victims. Like for instance, this one leaves you heavily paralyzed, which is why we left you just sitting in that chair.” He chuckled. “Not that you’d be able to get very far otherwise, mind you. But another one of these fascinating effects that we’ve discovered is that while you might not be able to move, you can still feel pain, which makes using them all the more fun.”

His heart rate sped up. He didn’t know what was about to happen to him, but it probably wasn’t anything good. He started to breathe faster, and all of his senses told him to move, but he couldn’t lift a finger.

The man grabbed him by the hair again, this time making him look up at a camera that was pointed directly at where he was sitting. “Say hi to the boys and girls watching at home, Ethan. We’re about to learn a lesson in biology.” He let go once more, and his head lolled to the side, now resting on his shoulder and letting him see a little farther forward. He did not like what he saw, though. There was a tray of knives beside him, all in different shapes, sizes, and, he presumed, sharpnesses. If he could gulp, he would’ve.

“First thing’s first: the circulatory system,” the man said, selecting a knife. “In humans, it carries our blood throughout the body, distributing oxygen from our lungs,” he poked menacingly at Ethan’s chest, “all the way up to our brains.”

Suddenly, he plunged the knife into Ethan’s forearm, causing his throat to tighten. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t get away from the sharp pain. He let out an involuntary groan that turned into more of a whimper by the end of it. “You see, ladies and gentlemen in the audience, Ethan here believes that just because androids don’t have oxygen in their blood, just because their “brains” don’t require oxygen, doesn’t mean that they’re not alive.” He shifted the blade around in his arm, causing another groan from Ethan, who now had tears in his eyes, though his face was still expressionless. “This, however, is incorrect, because the blood that runs through androids is fake, artificial and man-made, just like the lies that Ethan has been telling himself. It is used to power gears in their systems, not organs. Luckily, I’m here to help him correct this misguided view of life. Thus concludes our first lesson.”

He ripped out the knife, causing his arm to start bleeding immediately. It didn’t help that he had stabbed his bad arm, which only hurt worse when the force of the motion caused his hand to flop uselessly into his lap. He groaned again, louder this time. His arm felt like it was on fire.

“Don’t look so down, Ethan,” the man said, grabbing his head and running his fingers through his hair while all Ethan could do was stare lifelessly at the camera. “There are more lessons that we have yet to learn.” He let his head flop back down on his chest and then turned off the camera. Without another word, he walked out with it, closing and locking the door behind him.

Slowly but surely, he could feel the power of his muscles returning to him. Eventually, he could raise his hand, then his head. Finally, he felt strong enough to lift himself out of the chair, which he did. Immediately the weight he put on his legs caused them to buckle, and he fell to the floor. He rolled over and grabbed his arm, which along with his leg was now flaring in pain. He couldn’t stop himself from crying. For a long time, he just lay there like that, not wanting to move because of all the pain he felt.

\----

He must’ve fallen asleep at some point because he woke up to someone in the middle of wrapping his arm up in gauze. He was back was up against a wall, and he had nowhere to go. “What are you doing?” he asked, pulling his arm away.

“You’re not allowed to die,” she said, grabbing his arm again and resuming to wrap it. “Yet,” she added. Ethan gulped.

Once she was done, she handed him a small loaf of bread. “Eat,” she ordered, before walking out of the room.

He was suspicious of the food, but he had also lost a lot of blood in the past few hours, and he felt like if he didn’t ingest something then he would probably throw up. Or worse, they might try to shove it down his throat regardless. Weighing his options, he decided that would not be fun, and bit into it. It was stale, but at this point, he didn’t care.

After that, he didn’t see anyone for what felt like an eternity. It was probably just a couple of days, but he was too weak to get up and move or do anything except just sit there. He slept sporadically, trying not to think of what they were going to do to him next.

\----

Needless to say, Gavin was not okay. It had been a few days, and there had been no sign of Ethan, nothing new that could lead him to his kid. He thought that maybe that paint shop could have been a lead, but when Hank and Connor had come back empty-handed he had started to lose hope.

He was sitting in the break room, trying to pretend like he wasn’t about to go drown himself in coffee when it happened. He had barely slept since Ethan’s phone call, and that was a few days ago, so he thought he was hallucinating at first when he saw the tv screen go to static and short out.

He rubbed his eyes. Suddenly, a video started playing, which was very different from the news channel that he had just been watching. It showed a dark room, with a single light on, shining down on someone who was lying in a chair. It looked like he was unconscious until someone grabbed his face and showed to the audience that the man was very much awake. 

Whoever had grabbed the man’s face was unidentifiable, as he was wearing a mask. He let go and started pacing the room. Gavin wasn’t sure if he was talking to the camera or the man in the chair, but he didn’t like it either way. He stood up from the table he was sitting at to get a closer look at the tv. 

The masked figure had gone into some spiel about the wonders of drugging people, before he lifted the man’s head once more, this time to get him to look straight at the camera. Gavin’s heart seemed to stop beating when he saw who it was in the chair. 

“Say hi to the boys and girls watching at home, Ethan. We’re about to learn a lesson in biology.”

Gavin couldn’t breathe. That was Ethan in the chair. What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck-

He looked so… sedate. It unnerved him. Anger started seeping into his veins at the thought that they drugged his kid. Looking closer, he saw that Ethan had a black eye that was swollen shut, and his nose was definitely broken. 

The man let his head go, and it lolled to the side, resting on his shoulder. He went off camera for a second, and then came back with a knife. Gavin’s heart skipped a beat as he brought the tip of it to Ethan’s chest. “First thing’s first,” he said, “the circulatory system. In humans, it carries our blood throughout the body, distributing oxygen from our lungs to our brains.” He removed the knife, and Gavin let out a sigh of relief. 

That relief was gone in an instant as he stabbed Ethan in the forearm. He could see that he had tensed slightly, but whatever they had given him had obviously made it impossible to fight back. He heard Ethan groan, and rage overtook everything else. 

The man kept talking, but he wasn’t listening anymore. All he could do was keep his eyes on the kid, who looked like shit and kept groaning in pain. When the man finally removed the knife and started to run his fingers through Ethan’s hair, Gavin felt like he was going to explode. 

He only noticed that he was digging his nails into his palms once the video ended. The tv returned to static, but he kept staring at it in the hopes that it would show him Ethan again, only this time safe and sound. After a minute of angrily staring at the screen, he got up, ready to go yell at Fowler. 

He stormed out of the break room, intent on reaching the man’s office. He was stopped by a concerned Nines, who he only now realized had been watching the entrance to make sure Gavin wasn’t about to try and sneak off to go do something stupid. “Not now, Nines,” he growled, trying to get past him. 

“Reed, what are you doing?”

“What the fuck do you mean, ‘what are you doing?’ Did you not just fucking see the tv?” He pointed angrily at one of the televisions hanging on the wall in the precinct, which was displaying a replay of the video Gavin had just seen. 

Nines’ LED flashed yellow for a second as he looked over at the screen. “Is that… Ethan?” 

“Yes. Now get the hell out my way, I need to go talk to Fowler,” Gavin said, stepping around him. To his annoyance, Nines followed him into the office. 

“Did you need something, Reed?” Fowler looked at him from across his desk. 

Just as Gavin opened his mouth to say something, Officer Miller burst through the door. “Sir, the Stratford Tower’s been hacked again!”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As they waited for the elevator to go up, Gavin couldn’t help but think how helpless Ethan had looked in that video. The image of a knife to his kid’s chest was forever burned in his memory. He knew they needed to hurry, or he might never see Ethan again.
> 
> \----
> 
> "Ethan and I were just going to learn about the nervous system, and all its delightful ways it helps to keep the body alive. See how the nerve cells tell the muscles to get out of the way of pain? They raise little red alarms whenever the body does something harmful to it. Unfortunately for Ethan, he cannot get away from pain, and I doubt he ever will again.”
> 
> He started to tear up. He couldn’t take it anymore. This was probably his last chance to talk to Gavin, and he felt like he couldn’t even get the words out. After a moment, he sucked in a breath. “Gavin… I’m sorry.”
> 
> “You hear that? The little rat said he’s sorry,” he chuckled. “He’s got no idea just how sorry he’ll be if you keep sticking your nose in places it doesn’t belong.”
> 
> He was terrified, but he couldn't do anything. He was absolutely stuck, and he was going to die here. Gavin couldn't help him now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for sticking with me so far. I think I'm going to start writing chapter summaries as well as notes if I have anything else to say/announce. 
> 
> This chapter is pretty short, so I apologize. I'm posting this one a couple of days early just because it's one of the shortest ones, but I think I'm going to stick to posting on Fridays every week (unless something comes up, of course) so I wanted to let you know that that's going to be my "official" upload schedule. There will hopefully be a lot more substance in the next one (yay!) so stay tuned if you're enjoying the story!

As they waited for the elevator to go up, Gavin couldn’t help but think how helpless Ethan had looked in that video. The image of a knife to his kid’s chest was forever burned in his memory. He began to grow impatient.

“Can this damn elevator take any longer?” he growled, fidgeting in place.

Nines looked down at him. “Remember, detective. You are only here because Fowler thought you had a better hold on your emotions. Since you know he’s asked me to keep you in check, I’d suggest keeping the complaining to a minimum.”

Gavin mumbled something about not needing a babysitter, but Nines chose to ignore it. They finally reached the top floor, and they quickly stepped into the hall. There were already police officers there since it had taken a little while for Reed to convince Fowler to even let him in on the case. He wasn’t leading officer, that job was left to Anderson, but he didn’t care. At least they were letting him help.

When they entered the broadcast room, Nines immediately went over to check the security cameras. Gavin doubted he would find anything, seeing how these guys were too damn good at covering up their tracks, but he didn’t comment on it, instead examining the control panel. He turned and looked up at another officer who was standing near him. “You said there was a blackout, right?” he asked her.

“Yeah. As far as we could tell something or someone had overloaded the generator. By the time the backup kicked in, whoever was here was gone, and the whole broadcasting system was deactivated.”

“Except for the signal that was sending the video?” he asked. She nodded yes.

He turned back to the board. It seemed to be unlit, although everything else in building was working just fine. He examined it closer, looking for some sort of cut wire or broken motherboard that could’ve cause its lack of function. Just as he was about to dismiss it as another dead end, he caught sight of something attached to underside of the panel. There was a small device that was plugged in to one of the ports, and its clunky metal housing definitely didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of tech in the tower.

He grabbed it, pulling it out of the socket, and immediately received an electric shock upon removing it. The device skidded across the floor as he shook his hand to get rid of the short wave of pain. It stopped at the shoes of one Lieutenant Anderson. “Whatcha got there, Reed?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Before Gavin could object, he bent down and scooped it up, examining it in his hand. He stood up quickly before making his way towards Hank and his evidence. “I’m not sure. It just didn’t look like it belonged with all the high tech stuff in the room,” he said.

“So you decided to pull it out?” he questioned.

“It’s not like it was gonna do any damage, Hank. The board was already turned off, so I just thought that if it was the only thing in the room that wasn’t working then someone might’ve messed with it,” he defended himself.

He seemed satisfied with that answer, so he let go that Gavin could’ve just screwed up the whole building. “Connor, c’mere!” Hank yelled.

Gavin put on a pained expression at the thought of these two trying to help him figure this out, but he did his best to hide it for once. Connor walked over to them. “Yes, lieutenant? Do you need something?”

“Can you tell me if this thing could’ve had something to do with this whole mess?”

Connor took the device in his hand, and started to turn it around, obviously scanning it. He paused for a second. “That’s odd. My sensors report that the technology inside this casing was meant to be used as a sort of signal blocker. Where did you find this?” he asked.

He nodded his head towards Gavin. “Reed just pulled it out of the control panel over there.”

Connor’s LED turned yellow. “Could you ask them to try turning on the signal now?” he asked, noticing the board was lit up, unlike it had been before.

The three of them walked over to the panel with a technician that they signalled to come help them. Booting it up again, the screen at the front of the room lit up, filled with static, as nothing was currently being broadcasted. Regardless, they had found the issue with the signal. Connor went ahead and bagged the device as evidence and thanked the technician for his help.

Nines tapped Gavin on the shoulder, and he turned around to look at him. “I see that you’ve managed to fix the broadcasting station,” he noted.

“Did you get anything off the CCTV’s?” Gavin asked, hopeful.

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, detective. The cameras were deactivated even before the power outage.”

“Then who gives a damn about some broadcast machine? We still haven’t found anything actually useful,” he scoffed, trying to hide how he really felt.

“We are still searching. Perhaps there will be something else to find.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Reed said, not really believing it.

\----

After a couple of days, Ethan had almost given up on being found. He didn’t even know where he was, so he couldn’t really believe that someone was going to come find him. As the hours dragged on, everything only hurt worse. His head, his arm, his leg. But what hurt worst of all was that he was pretty sure he’d never make it home again. At least not in one piece.

He shivered. Another thing that was starting to bother him was how cold it was in the room. It seemed like every few hours the temperature dropped a degree, and he could’ve sworn it wasn’t this cold when he had initially woken up in this hellhole. He only had a t-shirt and a button up to keep himself warm. Every surface he touched felt like it was freezing, but it wasn’t like he could just get up and move to somewhere warmer.

He glared at his stupid leg. Every time he moved it, it felt like there were a hundred million daggers poking at his skin. He was pretty sure the bullet had broken his bone, but he couldn’t know unless he rolled up his pant leg to take a look. He was also pretty certain that trying to move the fabric out of the way might cause him to pass out, so he wasn’t exactly itching to try that anytime soon. Besides, his injured arm wasn’t strong enough to use that kind of force, which he simply added to his growing list of reasons why he probably wasn’t going to make it out of here alive.

He had become pretty comfortable with the aches in his body. His muscles felt stiff from lack of movement, and his body was pretty much sore all over from all of the hits he had taken here. Every once in a while he thought he heard someone coming, and his whole body tensed up in anticipation, but no one had actually come into the room for at least a couple of days, from what he could tell. He knew it was stupid, but he kept hoping that they had just abandoned him here, and the footsteps he heard outside were actually Gavin or someone coming to his rescue. He knew that was highly unlikely, though. The people here would probably keep him trapped until he bled out in a few weeks from whatever wounds they had or were going to inflict him with.

He shifted, trying to move his leg without making it hurt or bleed too much. His leg was pretty much drenched in blood and sweat now, though, so he couldn’t really tell if his efforts were worth it. He almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the door slam open. He backed up as far as he could against the wall, trying to get away from whoever was coming in, but he knew it was useless. A couple of people entered calmly, a high contrast to the rush of adrenaline Ethan was feeling right now. One of them held the camera and tripod from earlier, while another had a bunch of rope.

Every single person in the room now had a mask on, and he knew that couldn’t be a coincidence. There were five of them in all, which only made him want to freak out more. “Stay back!” He yelled the empty threat with as much courage as he could muster.

One of them giggled. “You were right, he is a fighter,” she said, strangely happy at Ethan’s terror.

The one at the center of the group nodded, and he was approached by two of the people who grabbed him and dragged him by the underside of his arms. He gasped when they shifted his leg, but they didn’t stop moving him until he was at the center of the room. They dropped him roughly on his back. He put his hands over his head in fear as they bent down and began to tear at his shirt, eventually ripping it to useless shreds. He grunted as one of them straddled his chest, making it hard for him to breathe. The pressure on his chest hurt worse than he thought it would. For a second he considered the thought that one of his ribs might be broken, but he got distracted when they pinned his arms to the ground above his head. He tried to fight them off, but his strength had waned with his increasing hunger, and his arm wasn’t doing him any favors.

To be honest, this was one of Ethan’s worst nightmares. He hated it when people saw his bare chest, and the little warmth his clothes had provided him had been ripped away from him, leaving him with the feeling that he had zero protection from the world and these maniacs. Another set of hands pinned his wrists down easily, and another started to tightly wrap rope around them. He knew that they were restraining him, but he was too weak to stop them. He stopped squirming completely when someone pushed down on the wound in his arm. He cried out in pain, but he knew it wouldn’t make a difference. Once they got up, he realized that he could barely move his hands at all. They had probably learned from last time to not take any chances with his escape.

A bright light shone on him, making it hard for him to see anyone beyond it. “Aw, look at that. The little fucker’s already mangled.” He squinted, trying to see the source of the voice. He knew that they were talking about his chest, but he didn’t want to think about that right now.

“What do you want?” he called out, not really expecting an answer. Instead, he was kicked in the stomach.

“Shut the fuck up,” someone said.

Suddenly he was being lifted up again, this time by the waist as someone walked him over to the corner of the room. Ethan realized that they were going to hang him back up on the hook. He knew he didn’t want to go back there, especially with his top half exposed, but the guy had him hoisted over his shoulder, and he barely had the strength to fight anymore. He braced himself as someone lifted his arms and secured him in place, trying to be ready for the pain that was about to come from the strain on his leg and arm. He was not, however, and the moment his toes touched the floor it felt like his limbs were on fire. He let out an anguished scream that was cut off when someone came from behind and gagged him, muffling the sound a little.

They placed the spotlight on him and started up the camera. At this point, Ethan had fallen into a cold sweat, and his loud screaming had died down into a low, constant groan.

“Y’know, I think I’ve had enough of your family screwing with our shit,” a familiar voice said. “I guess being annoying is a hereditary trait. Wouldn’t you agree, Detective Reed?" he said to the camera. 

Ethan looked up at the name. Why was he talking about Gavin? What did he want with him?

“Aw look, if you call his name he looks around like a lost puppy,” one of the other people said.

“Me and our guest were about to begin another lesson, and since you removed our ability to broadcast our message to the city, I thought I’d make this one just for you. Ethan and I were just going to learn about the nervous system, and all its delightful ways it helps to keep the body alive.” He walked over to Ethan, who started to try to talk to him through the gag, pleading with him not to do this, but he couldn’t get the words out. The man punched him hard in the gut, causing him to double over. “See how the nerve cells tell the muscles to get out of the way of pain? They raise little red alarms whenever the body does something harmful to it. Unfortunately for Ethan, he cannot get away from pain, and I doubt he ever will again.”

He felt like he was going to throw up what little he had left in his stomach, and he hung his head, trying to clear away the nausea. He was swinging slightly from the momentum of the punch, and every time his body switched directions his arm and leg would flare up again. He groaned loudly.

“Before we continue on with our lesson about how the body reacts to certain external stimuli, I believe Ethan has something to say.” The man ripped the gag off so that it hung around his throat. “Well, Ethan?” he said, lifting his head up towards the camera.

He started to tear up. He couldn’t take it anymore. This was probably his last chance to talk to Gavin, and he felt like he couldn’t even get the words out. After a moment, he sucked in a breath. “Gavin… I’m sorry.”

The group laughed at him. The man finally let go of his head, and made his way closer to the camera. “You hear that? The little rat said he’s sorry,” he chuckled. “He’s got no idea just how sorry he’ll be if you keep sticking your nose in places it doesn’t belong.” He turned to face Ethan again. “Now, on to the next portion of our lesson: temperature regulation. The body fights hard to keep itself in stable condition, especially when it comes to temperature. If it gets too hot, it will start to sweat so as not to overheat itself. And if it gets too cold… Well, Ethan’s about to figure that out for himself.”

He gave him a confused look until he saw the other person approaching him with a bucket. Before he could even think twice, he was splashed with ice-cold water, effectively drenching every inch of his body. He started to shiver violently, the cold room, lack of clothes, and now freezing water on his skin beginning to heavily lower his body temperature. He closed his eyes, trying to shut out the cold, but it did nothing. In the distance, he thought he heard loud booms, but he was probably just imagining it.

“But don’t worry, Reed. We promise we’ll keep him safe. That is, as long as you and those idiots at the police department don’t get in our way again.” And with that, he shut off the camera.

\----

Gavin had his head down on his desk, trying and failing to get some sleep, when he saw an alert pop up on his computer from the corner of his eye. He meekly raised his head, trying to recognize the who had sent him an email, but he didn’t recognize the sender.

It occurred to him that it might be just be junk mail, but it wasn’t like he had anything else to do at the moment. He opened it, and was surprised to see that there were no words written, just a video attached. Without thinking, he clicked on it, and when the first frame of the video popped up, he nearly jumped out of his seat.

“Y’know, I think I’ve had enough of your family screwing with our shit,” the man from before said. “I guess being annoying is a hereditary trait. Wouldn’t you agree, Detective Reed?”

Behind him, Ethan, who he was horrified to see was hanging from his wrists, looked up. Gavin gripped the screen, unable to push away the feeling of guilt he had when the kid glanced around at the sound of his name.

“Me and our guest were about to begin another lesson, and since you removed our ability to broadcast our message to the city, I thought I’d share this one with only you. Ethan and I were just going to learn about the nervous system, and all its delightful ways it helps to keep the body alive.” Gavin felt like he was going to sick.

Just then, the video paused, and he felt someone shaking his shoulder. “Gavin, Gavin! Reed, what the hell’s gotten into you?” Lieutenant Anderson's voice sounded in his ear above all the white noise that was caused by his sudden anger and disgust.

He looked at Hank for a second, and then reached over to un-pause the video, but he was stopped by Anderson grabbing his arm. “Gavin, look at me. What the fuck are you doing?”

He breathed out a shaky breath and pointed to his computer screen. Hank followed his hand. After a moment, he said, “Nuh-uh, I am not letting you watch that.”

Gavin whipped around to face him. “What the fuck do you mean you’re not?” he said, the red in his vision growing.

“You can’t watch that shit alone. We need to report it as evidence.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but he for once couldn’t find the words. He paused, gripping the desk. “Please.”

Hank sighed. He was silent for a moment, contemplating whether or not he should let Reed do this. “Fine then. But we’re looking at it together.”

They sat and watched the video all the way through in silence. He tensed at the sight of Ethan’s scars, but if Hank noticed, he said nothing. After it had ended, Gavin thought he noticed something. “Wait, go back a few seconds. I think I saw something.”

They rewound a couple of frames, right after Ethan got splashed. “There!” Gavin said, pointing at the screen. In the room that they were filming in, there was a small window near the top of the wall, and he focused on something shiny that looked like it had exploded a little ways away from where they were keeping Ethan.

Hank squinted. “Is that…”

“Fireworks,” he confirmed.

Hank turned. “Connor, get your ass over here for a second!”

The android popped his head up from behind his desk, obviously trying to pretend that he had not been listening to the entire exchange. “Coming, Lieutenant,” he said, walking over. “Do you need my help with something?”

“Do me a favor and look up if there’s supposed to be a fireworks show tonight.”

“Right away, Hank.” His LED turned yellow. “There is one, down by the river. May I ask why you wanted to know?”

Hank and Gavin exchanged a look. “I think we just found our guys.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Aren’t you a curious thing? I would have thought that you would have given up by now.”
> 
> He didn’t know if by ‘giving up’ he meant succumbing to the cold or dying, but he glared back at him anyway.
> 
> Suddenly, a figure entered the room. “Yates. It’s the police. They’re surrounding the place,” she panted.
> 
> “Shit. Fine, fuck it. Tell them to hide and ambush them when they come. They don’t know how many we’ve got up here, so we can probably take them out and make a break for it in the river.”
> 
> “What are you going to do with him?” the figure in the door asked.
> 
> “We’re taking him with us. We’re not done with him yet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I was super excited to post this chapter. I'm still new to writing fight scenes and things, but I hope I'm getting better. Enjoy!

Gavin was antsy the entire trip to the river. They had managed to find an abandoned freighter in a 20-mile radius of where a fireworks show was being performed. There was no doubt that that was where those psychos were hiding. And if they were there, then that meant Ethan was, too.

He almost died when he thought Fowler was going to make him sit this one out. But upon Hank’s insistence, Gavin had been allowed to come along, as long as he was taking orders from the lieutenant. He didn’t know what he expected to find in there, but he did know that he wasn’t coming out without his kid.

They finally stopped the car, some 50 yards away from the abandoned ship, and got out to where more and more people were gathering. He saw people from the precinct, but he also saw a few feds, as well. He didn’t care who was helping him at this point. He just wanted to storm in there already.

“Alright, listen up!” Hank called out. “The plan is we’re gonna surround the place first and spread out. The only people who are going in are a couple of the feds and my group,” he said, glancing at Gavin. “Connor, Nines. Stick together. Reed, you’re with me. The rest of us are gonna hold down the entrance as best we can. Got it?”

Everyone nodded. “Alright. Spread out.” They got into position.

On their way over to the boat, Hank turned to Gavin. “Are you sure you wanna do this Reed?” he asked, sounding slightly concerned.

Gavin held back a scoff and simply nodded. “I’m gettin’ him back, even if it kills me.”

“Watch it. It’s not gonna come to that,” he warned.

Gavin only looked down in reply.

\----

The man watched him shiver, seeming to enjoy it. Ethan hated the way he looked at him like he was a class goldfish on display, but he couldn’t do anything about it.

He walked over to him, looking pleased with himself. “Aren’t you a curious thing? I would have thought that you would have given up by now.”

He didn’t know if by ‘giving up’ he meant succumbing to the cold or dying, but he glared back at him anyway. He wasn’t even scared anymore. He had said his goodbyes to Gavin already, and he had stopped caring when it became comfortable to shake. Indignant, he spat on the floor. “Bite me,” he challenged, still shuddering from the cold.

That earned him a punch in the jaw. His head whipped to the side. He felt like the room was spinning, but the man grabbed his face and turned his head towards him. “You need to learn some manners, boy.” The man went off to the side and came back with another bucket. His eyes widened, but he could do nothing as the man poured every single drop right on top of his head. When it was empty, the man threw down the bucket, which ricocheted off the floor and hit Ethan in the leg. He let out a yelp of pain.

Suddenly, a figure entered the room. “Yates. It’s the police. They’re surrounding the place,” she panted.

“Shit. Fine, fuck it. Tell them to hide and ambush them when they come. They don’t know how many we’ve got up here, so we can probably take them out and make a break for it in the river.”

In the background, Ethan coughed, choking on the water that was once again covering every inch of his body. The man turned. “And you,” he said, walking back over, “are going to shut the hell up.” He re-tied the gag tightly around Ethan’s mouth.

“What are you going to do with him?” the figure in the door asked.

“We’re taking him with us. We’re not done with him yet.”

Ethan started to panic at this. He tried talking, but the man just punched him again. “Sit tight.”

They both walked out of the room, and he was left to helplessly hang.

\----

Connor and Nines glanced at each other. Connor didn’t know what to expect. According to his calculations and the size of the boat, he estimated that there could be anywhere from 15 to 50 people inside. He didn’t doubt that they had seen them coming.

He drew his gun and nodded at Nines. Together, they entered the abandoned ship. 

The first thing he noticed was that it was extremely dark. While he and Nines could easily maneuver their way through the halls, the humans would have to use flashlights to find their way around. This was an obvious play by the inhabitants of the boat. They were signaled to take the left corridor, while Hank and Gavin were to move to the right. Along with a group of federal agents, they marched down the hall, splitting off to search different rooms in pairs.

Nines kicked down the first door, and they immediately covered each other’s six. As soon as they saw the entire room was clear, they moved towards the next door, which led to a different room. They continued like this for a while, gradually moving further into the boat, until the came to an unusually heavy door. Using their combined strength, they managed to pry open the hatch, and entered what appeared to have been the captain’s quarters a long time ago. They moved further into the room until they were a few feet from the door. They spun around when they heard it close behind them, and out came running someone from the shadows.

Nines was first to fire his gun, aiming right for the legs. He hit, but before he could do anything else someone dropped from the rafters and grabbed on to his back, unbalancing him. Connor aimed, ready to shoot, but his sensors told him that if he did he had a 90% chance of also hitting Nines.

Before he could do anything, though, someone grabbed him from behind. He immediately flung them over his shoulder with a sickening ‘crack.’ Afterward, someone else came running out for him, but they fell to the floor after Nines had shot them in the shoulder. More and more people seemed to be coming from everywhere, surrounding them.

Connor spotted a door. “Nines!” he yelled, pointing.

“Go on without me. I’ll catch up to you later!”

Connor nodded, hoping he would be alright, and ran out the open door.

The doorway led to another hallway, and Connor ran until he came upon an open door. He immediately crouched and hid in the room, trying to go undiscovered by the few people that had followed him outside the quarters. The room he entered looked like someone’s study, and thankfully he couldn’t see anyone else inside, or so he thought until he heard the creaking of a door being shoved open. Thinking quickly, he ran and hid underneath the desk, hoping that whoever was trying to enter the room had not seen him. From his position, he could see two pairs of legs.

“What are we gonna do? They’ve got almost the entire place surrounded!” one voice said.

“No shit, Sherlock,” the other said, beginning to pace. “If we could just make it to the river…” he trailed off.

“What if we used the brat as a bargaining chip?” the first one suggested, which seemed to anger her partner, who whipped around.

“No. I’ve come too far to lose him now. We still need him, and we’ve wasted too much time and resources to replace him with someone else. He’s coming with us. Besides, we’ve got people on the inside that can deal with this,” the other concluded.

It was obvious to Connor that they were talking about Ethan, but before he could learn anything else he heard a commotion coming from outside.

“What the fuck is that?” the second one said before they both went to investigate the door in which Connor had entered. He took this distraction as his chance to get out and ran quietly through the door that the pair had originally come through.

This time he was met with a room that had a staircase leading further up or down. Remembering that the room Ethan was in had a visible window in it, he decided his best bet was to continue up.

He finally came to a small intersection of hallways. He could see that to his left there was a door to another a room, and to his right, the hallway continued and intersected once more with another hallway. He chose to enter the room, knowing that he probably didn’t have much time before someone caught him out here. The door was locked, but after ramming it a few times Connor managed to get it open. 

From the corner, he heard someone groaning, and he ran over to them. 

“Connor?” Ethan mumbled through a gag over his mouth.

He put a finger to his lips. “Yes, it’s me. I’ve come to get you out of here.”

He scanned him, checking his vitals in the process. They did not look good at all. He grabbed him by the waist, careful not to touch his leg, and lowered him onto the floor. Ethan shivered as he removed the gag from his neck. 

“Y-you shouldn’t be here,” he said. “Don’t get yourself killed trying to s-save me.”

Connor ignored him, only giving him a sympathetic look in response. “I need to take a look at your arm,” he said, moving around his body. Ethan grunted when he touched it. His upper arm had been shot, but the wound had obviously gone untreated. There was dried blood all around it, and it was continuing to bleed even now.

He removed his tie from around his neck and tied it around his arm to create a tourniquet. After he was done, Ethan started having a coughing fit, before turning and looking up in fear at something behind Connor. He heard the cock of a gun, and cold metal was pushed on the back of his head.

“Back away. Now,” the voice commanded.

Connor put his hands up, and slowly stood up from his position over Ethan.

“Back against the wall.”

Connor slowly obeyed, knowing that if he tried something then Ethan might get shot, and he didn’t think his body could take much more stress. He sent a telepathic message to Nines.

‘I found him, but I’m not alone. I need backup.’

He received a response a few seconds later. ‘We’re coming.’

Connor sighed in relief, relaxing a little.

“Not another fuckin’ step,” the man said, walking over to Ethan and picking him up by the throat into a chokehold. “Or I’ll shoot.” He shifted his body, and Ethan let out a small gasp. He pointed the gun directly at his head.

Connor locked eyes with him and wished he could just tell him that it would be okay.

\----

Hank and Gavin were working their way around the boat when they heard creaking footsteps behind them. They both turned around quickly, and Nines almost gave Gavin a heart attack.

“Nines! What the hell? Where’s Connor?” Gavin hissed, looking around.

“We were ambushed and had to separate. I was forced to… deal with a few criminals so that he could continue on,” he said darkly. “I believe he is somewhere on the upper floor.”

“Well, that’s just great,” Hank said sarcastically, though it was clear he cared about what happened to his partner.

Nines’ LED flashed yellow, and he knotted his eyebrows together. “I have just received a message from Connor. He says he has found Ethan, but he needs backup.”

“Well, then, what the hell are we waiting for?” Hank said. “Lead the way.”

Nines took them through what seemed to Gavin like a maze of hallways, before finally coming upon a staircase. He gestured that they were up there, and the three of them slowly climbed up, emerging at an intersection in the hallways. “There. They are in that room,” Nines said, pointing at an open doorway.

“What’s the plan?” Gavin asked.

Before Nines could respond, however, a flashlight shone on them. The android reacted quickly, turning and shoving Gavin out of the view of the light.

“Get up! No sudden moves, unless you want a bullet in between your eyes!” A man across the hall said, pointing a gun at them. Before he stood up, Nines made a hand gesture that told Gavin to go around. Then they tried turning to the left down the hall, only to be met with another light and gun.

“You’re surrounded. Hands over your heads, now!” the other yelled. The pair did what they were told, and Gavin shrunk further into the shadows, praying that they wouldn’t spot him. Hank and Nines were forcefully led into the room on the opposite side of it, telling Gavin that there were two entrances. He waited a minute before creeping over to the open doorway nearest him.

What he saw made his blood boil. Connor, Hank, and Nines were backed against a wall, and on the other side was Ethan, being held in a headlock at gunpoint.

“Clear out, but don’t wait for me. I want to enjoy this alone,” the man ordered the other two away. “So, if it isn’t the famous deviant hunters and their old grandpa.”

Gavin hoped Hank had enough sense to keep his cool. He didn’t know what he could do at the moment, so as much as it killed him, he watched and waited for a good moment to sneak in.

“Some of Detroit’s finest, and they can’t even rescue a rookie cop.”

Ethan started to claw at his arm with his good hand. “Please… Stop,” he rasped.

The man only squeezed harder. “Not another word out of you.” Gavin started to see red. “Y’know, if it were left up to only me, then I’d shoot him and make the whole lot of you watch him die. But luckily for you, other people think he’s important, so instead I guess I’ll have to shoot you three and then me and the kid are gonna go for a little swim,” he waved the gun around.

He couldn’t help himself anymore. He refused to lose Ethan again. As the man waved the gun in the air, he saw his opening and took it.

“No!” he screamed, running and tackling the man with a thud. The gun went off in his hand mid-air, and Gavin struggled with him for it. For one fear-inducing second, he thought that he was about to get shot, but then he pulled the gun away from him and it skidded across the floor. He cranked his arm and socked him as hard as he could in the jaw. He heard something break as the man was knocked unconscious, and he stood there, panting before he heard a groan come from behind him.

He turned back and his eyes widened as he saw Ethan lying in a pool of his own blood. 

“Ethan!”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan screamed. It was bloodcurdling, and he was crying. Gavin got down on his level on the floor and looked him in the eyes. “Ethan! Ethan, I’m right here, it’s okay. I know it hurts, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Ethan, look at me. I know it’s painful, but you have to push through it.” Gavin kept talking to him, trying to walk him through it. What he wouldn’t give to trade places with him right at this moment, he didn’t know.
> 
> “Why,” he gasped for air. “Why does everything… _hurt?”_
> 
> “It’s gonna be alright. You’re gonna be fine, you’re just gonna have to trust me on that,” he watched as Connor picked him up carefully. Ethan grunted. “Do you trust me?”
> 
> Ethan looked like he was struggling to stay awake. “I… trust you,” he finally said, before going limp in Connor’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm posting this very late on Thursday night because I realized tomorrow I'm going to be very tired and busy. This is probably my favorite chapter, and one of the main plot points I knew I definitely wanted to include, and I'm really excited to post it!

“Ethan, no!” Gavin yelled, running and sliding to his side. He snapped his fingers in front of his face, trying to get the kid’s attention. “Hey, hey, kid. Talk to me. C’mon,” he said, desperate.

Ethan moaned, and his eyes opened into slits. “Gavin? What’re you doing here?” he asked, clearly out of it.

As the others ran over to them, Gavin tried to keep calm. “Hey. Hey, what do you mean ‘what am I doing here?’ I’m here to come get you, bud.”

Ethan coughed, groaning. “But it’s barely morning out. How come we have to get up so early?” he started to slur his words together, confused.

Gavin locked eyes with Hank. That couldn’t mean anything good.

“He’s losing a lot of blood,” Connor stated. “He might be confused because of that. I think the best thing you can do right now is keep him calm so that we can get ready to move him.”

“Hmmm, is that Connor?” Ethan had closed his eyes.

Gavin put his hand underneath his head to support him. “Hey, kid. No sleepin’ right now, you got me?”

“Mmm, why do you always have to be so bossy?” Ethan joked. At least he had reopened his eyes.

He glanced back to where Connor and Nines were instructing Hank on where to put pressure on the wound. He had to keep talking. “I’m a police officer. It’s legally required in the job application.”

Ethan chuckled for a second before his face twisted into one of pain. Gavin turned and saw that Nines was in the middle of rolling up his pant leg, which was covered in blood. Ethan tried to lift his head up to see what was happening, but Gavin gently pushed him back down. He snapped in front of his face again, trying to regain his attention. “Hey, all eyes on me, rat. You gotta stay down, okay?”

Ethan gave him a confused, scared look. “W-why? What’s going on?”

Gavin took his good hand and held it. “It’s not important. I just need you to focus on me, okay? Just ignore them, alright?” He tried to keep the panic out of his voice, but he was starting to stammer a little.

Ethan looked like he was starting to calm back down. He squeezed Gavin's hand. “Hey, can I ask you a favor?” he said.

“Whatcha need, squirt?” He tried to ignore the crack in his voice.

“Could you please turn up the heat? I’m kinda cold.”

Gavin was fighting back tears at this point. “Yeah, sure bud, in a sec.”

“Nines, could you please give me your jacket? I want to try and make a makeshift bandage around his abdomen,” Connor asked, glancing at Gavin. “This will probably be extremely painful, but we have to stop the bleeding.”

As Nines handed him his jacket, Gavin searched for a way he could explain what was about to happen to Ethan without alarming him. “Hey, squirt?”

“Yeah, huh?” He had closed his eyes again.

“We’re gonna have to get you up in a sec. It might hurt, so go ahead and squeeze my hand if you need to.”

“Mmm, okay,” he said. It was clear that he was only half-listening to him.

“We’re going to roll him on his side on the count of three,” Nines said, trying to place as much of the jacket as he could beneath his body before they had to move him.

“Ready? 1… 2… 3!”

The moment they rolled him over, Ethan screamed. It was bloodcurdling, and he was crying. Gavin got down on his level on the floor and looked him in the eyes. “Ethan! Ethan, I’m right here, it’s okay. I know it hurts, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Ethan, look at me. I know it’s painful, but you have to push through it.” Gavin kept talking to him, trying to walk him through it. What he wouldn’t give to trade places with him right at this moment, he didn’t know.

They wrapped the jacket tightly around his waist, and tied it, trying to apply as much pressure as possible. Ethan had now started to cry softly. They slowly rolled him onto his back. 

“Did anyone see an exit wound?” Hank asked.

The androids shook their heads. Shit.

Gavin leaned over Ethan again. “Ethan. It’s alright, kid.” He held his head in his hands, and now they were both crying.

“Why,” he gasped for air. “Why does everything… _hurt?”_

“We need to move him, now,” Connor said.

“It’s gonna be alright. You’re gonna be fine, you’re just gonna have to trust me on that.” He watched as Connor picked him up carefully. Ethan grunted. “Do you trust me?”

Ethan looked like he was struggling to stay awake. “I… trust you,” he finally said, before going limp in Connor’s arms.

\----

Ethan didn’t know what was going on. He could feel himself moving, but he wasn’t the one doing it. He opened his eyes when he felt a gust of wind, and he shivered. “Connor?”

“Yes, Ethan. It’s me.”

“What’s going on?” he asked.

Connor didn’t respond.

He shifted. His whole body hurt, but there wasn’t a position he could get into to relieve the pain. He squinted his eyes when they approached a bright light. “Connor, where are we going?” he asked, ready to fall back asleep.

“We’re taking you home.”

“Oh. Okay,” he said, turning more into Connor’s body to escape the light. He was growing more and more tired, but when he felt his body being moved somewhere else he opened his eyes. Now, he couldn’t escape all the light, and everywhere he looked was blinding. He tried to get up, but people kept pushing him down. “Connor?” he called out. “Connor, what’s happening?” He began to panic when he received no answer.

Suddenly, Gavin was there, trying to keep him calm while he floundered in the sea of hands gripping him and prodding at him. “Hey, kid. It’s me, I’m right here,” he said.

“Gavin? Why won’t they let me move?” He was really starting to freak out.

“You gotta keep still, kid. The more you move, the more all of this is gonna hurt.”

“I don’t understand. What’s happening? What’s going to hurt?” He reached out, and Gavin took his hand. He looked over to the side at something, but Ethan couldn’t tell what it was. Gavin squeezed his hand. “Please. Please don’t let them hurt me,” he begged, trying again to get up.

“Okay, kid, but you gotta stay down. It’s only gonna be painful for a second,” he said, putting his other hand on Ethan’s shoulder and pushing him back down. He kept his hand there, so now he could barely move his chest.

He panicked when he felt hands grab on to his leg. He howled in pain trying desperately to struggle away from Gavin, who was now holding him down with both hands. “Ethan! Ethan, you gotta keep still.”

“But it hurts,” he said. “Everything they’re doing hurts.” He was so scared.

“Ethan, look at me.” He focused on Gavin’s face. “You need to stay calm. I’m right here, buddy. You just gotta let them do what they need to.”

“Gavin, I’m scared.”

“I know, squirt. But it’s gonna be okay. Just focus on me, alright?” In the distance, he could hear a countdown. He looked at Gavin for a moment, before nodding hesitantly.

A second later, the countdown stopped, and he screamed out as they shifted his leg bone back into place. After that, the hands on his leg were gone again, and he let himself sink back down. He was vaguely aware of tears running down his face, but he was distracted by Gavin. “It’s over now, see?” He lifted his hands from Ethan’s shoulders. “You’re okay, buddy. You’re okay.”

Ethan reached out again, and Gavin took his arm, carefully pulling him into a hug. When he pulled out of it, Gavin looked over to the side once more. “Alright.” He turned back to Ethan. “I have to step away for a sec, but I want you to know that I’m right behind you, okay?”

“What?” he asked, confused, but Gavin was already standing up. A group of people stood over him, blocking his view of him, but he didn’t recognize any of their faces. They began to put straps over him, and he struggled to fight back. After a second, they had successfully pinned down his limbs, and he looked around wildly. “Gavin! Gavin, what’s going on?” he said as they began to lift him up. He couldn’t move, and he didn’t know where they were taking him. He strained, trying to get out, but it was no use. 

Eventually, he was lifted higher until they took him towards the bright light. He closed his eyes, trying to block it out. Suddenly, he stopped moving, and there was a hand on his arm. “Hey, kid. I’m right here.” He opened one eye up a crack and saw that Gavin was right beside him. 

He calmed down at the sight of him. He felt him squeeze his hand. “I missed you, kid.” His gaze shifted to where he could now see other people sitting, talking to one another, his eyes having adjusted to the light. He felt him squeeze his arm, and he turned back to look at Gavin. “I need you to do me a favor, Ethan.”

“What do you need?” he asked, slightly squinting. 

“I want you to know that these guys,” he said, in reference to the other people, “they aren’t here to hurt you. You gotta let them do what they have to do, okay?”

He nodded in response, though he still didn’t really know what was going on. He couldn’t remember how he had gotten here, but he finally let himself relax knowing that Gavin was with him. He slowly let his head drop down onto something soft. He yawned. Ethan finally let himself rest for a second.

——

Nines wasn’t sure how to feel. He was concerned, of course, he was. He knew that Ethan meant a lot to Gavin, and they had certainly had a close call. But he couldn’t help but remember how his partner had flung himself into danger, and almost got shot in the struggle to get the gun away. He’d probably make a snarky remark about how Reed was a loose cannon if the situation weren’t so serious.

He flashed back to when they had all been on the ship. He had known that he could push Gavin out of the way, and he probably prevented him from running at Ethan when he got in the room. He remembered the moment Gavin had tackled the person who held Ethan at gunpoint. He couldn’t read minds, but he was fairly sure that his partner thought he had a good chance of losing his life just to save Ethan, and yet he still put himself between the gun and his nephew anyway. The thought concerned him, but he wasn’t surprised, given the way that Reed had been acting ever since he got that desperate phone call. It only brought up a resurgence of curiosity about the pair’s relationship, but he knew now was not the time to question it.

He remembered the moment the gun went off and hit Ethan. It was a one-in-a-million shot, especially considering that the bullet had completely missed Gavin. He remembered finally getting closer to the young detective to help treat the wound and seeing not only a bleeding bullet hole but a spider web of scars across his chest as well. He had said nothing at the time, as he had been too busy making sure Ethan wouldn’t bleed out, but he had some deep, unwarranted feeling that those scars had something to do with the bond between him and his partner.

A doctor came through a door and walked over to him. “Are you here to see Mr. Reed?” she asked him politely. He nodded, and she led him through a door and a couple of halls before arriving at the room Ethan was staying at. She turned to him. “Just so you know, he’s meant to be resting right now, and he is still very tired from the amount of blood he lost, among other things.” He almost winced when he heard that, but he composed himself. Ethan did not need his pity right now. “We also have put him on painkillers, so there’s a high chance he won’t remember a lot of tonight.”

After finishing her list of warnings, she opened the door to reveal Gavin at Ethan’s side, holding his hand. He glanced over at Nines, who entered the room and closed the door behind him.

“Hey, kid. Look who’s here to see you,” Gavin said, squeezing his hand. Nines walked over to where Ethan could see him easily in the dim light of the hospital room. 

He looked extremely tired, but he smiled when he saw who it was standing in front of him. “Nines,” he rasped happily. 

“Hello, Ethan. How are you feeling?” he asked. 

Ethan grunted. “I’m just… really tired,” he could see that he was focusing on not slurring his words together. “Think I’m gonna… take a nap,” he said, shutting his eyes slowly. 

“Yeah, bud. You do that,” Gavin said, watching him. They waited for a moment as they watched his heart rate slow down. 

Nines walked over and sat in the chair next to Reed’s. Without looking at him, he said, “He keeps coming in and out of it. I can’t really keep him awake for long, so I just let him sleep.”

“How is he, really?” he asked again. 

Gavin shook his head, a sad smile on his face. “He’s got a hole in his arm that’s probably been infected, along with a deep cut in his forearm, but that’s not the main thing they’re worried about. They said his leg’s broken from a gunshot to the calf, and I think you remember the bullet in his side.” Nines looked over at the bandage that he could see through the blankets and hospital gown he was wearing that wrapped around his left hip. “Top that off with a couple of fractured ribs, a broken nose, malnourishment, extreme blood loss, and a low temperature, and they gave him a pretty low chance of making it through the night. And even if he makes it,” he sucked in a breath, “ _when_ he makes it through, he’s got a long recovery ahead of him.”

He sniffed, and Nines placed a hand on his shoulder. He couldn’t imagine what was going through Gavin’s head right now. “You don’t have to go through this alone,” he said, trying to comfort him.

Gavin shuddered for a moment. “I know. But he needs me. I have to be there for him.”

“What makes you think you haven’t been?” he challenged.

“Just look at him, Nines. He looks like he’s been brought back from the dead. I could’ve been there sooner. I could’ve gone home with him.” It was obvious that Gavin blamed himself entirely for what happened. 

“Detective. You know as well as I do that you found him as fast as you possibly could.” Reed looked down at the floor. “There was no way you could’ve known this would happen. You were just looking out for him like you always do,” he said as sincerely as he could. 

Gavin scoffed. “And look what good looking out did for him.”

He didn’t know how to respond. It was clear that he could not convince him that this wasn’t his fault, however incorrect that may be. They both looked up when Ethan stirred, groaning. “Where am I?” he asked after he opened his eyes, starting to panic and trying to lift himself up. 

“Whoa there, kid. Calm down, calm down. You’re fine,” Gavin soothed, pushing him back down for what felt like the fiftieth time.

His eyes widened. “Gavin? You can’t be here!” He gripped his arm tightly, trying once more to push himself up on his elbows. He groaned when he put weight on his right arm. 

“Ethan. Ethan, calm down! Take a look around. You’re safe, but you need to stop moving or you’re gonna hurt yourself more. ” He struggled for a moment, trying to keep him from moving, and after a second Ethan slowly stopped squirming.

“What- what happened? How did I get here?” He looked around the room wildly. 

Gavin leaned in closer, and gently took his hand. “You’re in the hospital, kid. Nearly gave me a damn heart attack, but you’re good now. Nothing’s gonna happen to you, I promise.”

“I… I…,” he closed his eyes and put his hand to his head. He turned back to Gavin with panic in his eyes. “Why can’t I remember?” He started to breathe faster. “I don’t know what happened. I can’t remember…” He gripped Gavin’s shirt. His eyes focused on something farther back. “Oh my god, is that my leg?” He looked over at his leg, which was now elevated and in a cast. “What’s going on? Why-”

Gavin cut him off, shifting so that Ethan couldn’t see around his body. He gently rested his hand on Ethan’s cheek and shushed him quietly. “Hey, it’s alright. C’mon, deep breaths, that’s it. I got you. You just…” He looked down, trying to think of an excuse that wouldn’t freak him out. “You got injured. Had to take you to the hospital, but you’re gonna be fine. Your leg’s just broken, but you’ll be okay. I got you.”

His breathing started to slow down. After his panic, he had exhausted a lot of his energy, and he sunk back down into the bed. Gavin sat back down and took his hand again. “Hey, bud. You good now?”

He nodded. “I’m sorry. I just… I don’t know. I thought for a second I was back there. I’m sorry for freaking out.”

“Hey, kid. Don’t apologize to me, you got nothing to be sorry for. It was just a nightmare or something.”

He sniffed. “I know. It’s just been so long... since I’ve been in here.” He paused, trying to fight back sleep. “Was I... in another accident?” he asked, yawning. Nines’ LED whirred yellow for a second. 

Gavin puffed out a breath. “No, no, nothing like that. You just…” he trailed off for a second, not sure what to say. “You just got injured on a case. Nothing too serious, just your leg,” he lied. 

“Oh, okay. I’ll try to be more careful next time,” he responded after a moment, quieter.

“Get some rest, rat. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

“Mmm, promise?” Ethan said, looking at him with half-closed eyes. 

He nodded. “I promise. You’re gonna be fine.” That was all it took, and he let his eyes slide shut all the way. Once he wasn’t looking, Gavin slowly put his head down on the bed. 

They stayed like that for a few minutes, before he collected himself once more. “Yeah, as you can see, he keeps doing that,” he sniffed. “Sometimes he knows what happened, sometimes he doesn’t. They just told me to keep him calm, so that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Nines shifted. “We have to have faith that he’ll recover, detective.”

Gavin looked at him. He thought that he was going to make some snarky remark about faith, but to his surprise, he sighed. “I don’t know what I’d do without him, Nines. He’s all I’ve got left,” he said quietly. 

“He mentioned he was in here before?” Gavin nodded after a second. “He had an accident before this, then?” Another nod. “I know I don’t really have any place to say this, but look at him. He made it through before, right? Who’s to say he can’t do it again?”

He looked down. “You weren’t there, Nines. You don’t know.”

He put his hand on his shoulder again. “Then tell me, Reed. It’s alright. You don’t have to go through this alone. I’m right here, all you have to do is let me in.”

There was a moment of silence. Gavin sucked in a shaky breath and then sighed. Just when Nines thought he was going to ignore him, he spoke.

“September. It was the middle of the night. Him and his parents were driving home from a birthday party. He was twelve at the time. It was late and dark out, and they were about to make a turn on an intersection before some drunk ass came speeding at them. The car was crushed and it got pushed down a hill. It eventually stopped rolling, once it hit a tree. Every single fuckin’ window was smashed, and there was blood everywhere.” He shook his head as if trying to clear the image from his mind. 

“Were you with them?” Nines asked. 

He let out a sad, hurt chuckle. “I was one of the first responders. Life’s funny like that.” He paused, taking another deep breath in. “We managed to pull him and his mom out, but at that point, it was too late. His mother had bled out a long time ago. I didn’t even get to say goodbye,” Gavin’s voice cracked a little. “His dad died when the car exploded into flames. Everyone thought Ethan was done for, too. Kid had millions of tiny shards of glass in his chest. But for some goddamn reason, his heart kept beating, and he didn’t let go. I remember pulling him out of the car myself and thinking, ‘this can’t be my nephew. There’s no way that this could be him.’ Didn’t matter what I thought, though.” He scoffed. “First thing he said when he saw my face was something along the lines of ‘Uncle Gavin!’ before he passed out in my arms. Didn’t wake up until a couple of days later, when he said the same thing, along with something about how he knew I’d come rescue him. And I… I promised him that I always would.” Gavin finally looked up at him, and he had tears in his eyes. This was probably the first time Nines had ever seen his partner full-on cry, but he didn’t blame him. 

“I’m sorry, Gavin. I didn’t know,” he said. 

“How could you? I never talked to anyone about it except for the kid. I’m sure you saw the scars, right? He got those from that night.” He let out a breath. “He’d never admit it to me, but I think he was always holding out hope that they would disappear.” He said, pausing. "I always tried telling him that Liv- his mom- she’d never want him to be ashamed of what he looked like. She’d never want him to be embarrassed. To feel guilty for getting hurt.” He trailed off. 

“His mother- were you close?” Nines asked. 

Gavin nodded, sniffing a little. “Her name was Olivia. She was too kind for her own good. Guess he gets it from her, ‘cause it can’t’ve been from me." Gavin smirked, but melancholy was etched into his face. "Yeah, we were close. I always liked to keep in touch with them, mainly ‘cause I didn’t know which case was gonna be my last.” He wiped his eyes. “Never thought she’d end up dying before me. Definitely didn’t think I’d be there when she did.”

Slowly, Nines wrapped his arm around Gavin. He didn’t hug back, but he didn’t push him away, either. “She was your sister?”

He nodded again. “Met his dad when they were Ethan’s age. Didn’t know how to feel about him until Ethan was born. She of course insisted I be his godfather. I didn’t know what to think about that when she told me. Wasn’t sure if I could handle the responsibility of a child.” He looked at Ethan again. “Like I said, life’s funny like that.”

He clenched his hand, gasping. Nines looked down at it, removing his arm from around Gavin’s shoulders. “Detective, is there something wrong with your hand?” he asked. 

“It’s nothing. Probably just a sprain,” he said, but he wouldn’t look at Nines. 

“Reed, give me your arm,” he ordered. 

Probably knowing that if he didn’t, he’d be caught in the lie, Gavin begrudgingly gave him his wrist. Examining it, he saw that his ring finger and pinky were swollen, and looked red and sort of out of place. 

He looked up. “You need to go get this checked out,” Nines stated matter-of-factly. 

Gavin pulled his arm away. “What? There is no fucking way I’m gonna leave Ethan alone to go check on a possible sprain,” he said indignantly. 

“It’s not a sprain. Your back fingers are broken.”

“Bullshit.”

His voice started to rise. “Detective-”

“Look, even if it was broken, there’s no way I’m gonna waste time getting it fixed while leaving the kid unsupervised.”

“Gavin,” he said, putting his hand on his shoulder again, “he won’t be unsupervised. I can stay here and watch over him. You just have to trust me.”

Gavin glanced back and forth between Nines and Ethan like he was trying to weigh each consequence. “Do you trust me?” he asked again. 

“I…” He still looked unsure, but Nines knew that he was slowly persuading him. 

“I promise, if anything happens while you’re gone, I’ll come get you. I swear,” he added on, hoping it would be enough to get his partner to go seek medical assistance. 

After a moment, Gavin sighed, giving in. “Fine,” he said, reluctantly standing up from the chair that he had probably been sitting in all night. “But if something goes wrong…”

“I promise you will be the first to know. After the doctors, of course. But I will come get you.”

That seemed to satisfy him for the moment, and he walked toward the door, quietly opening and then closing it so as not to disturb Ethan. After he was gone, Nines moved his chair closer to the bed, solemnly taking watch over Ethan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update: Hey guys, my sister went ahead and drew this frame of the story, so I thought I'd put it here!
> 
>  


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I just wanted to say once again thank you for reading! I absolutely cannot believe that this story has reached 500+ people. That's over half a thousand, which is so amazing to me. I never thought that it would go this far, but I'm so happy that it did.
> 
> Oh, and I'm also deciding to put 14 chapters in this story, but I'm also pretty sure that this will be part of a series (yay!)

Ethan woke up covered in something soft and warm. It was a nice change from the cold dampness he vaguely remembered. It didn’t change the fact that everything hurt, though. 

He let out a groan. Slowly, he opened his eyes, looking to the side and seeing Gavin sitting in a chair, looking down. 

“Gavin?” he asked quietly. Suddenly he started coughing up a fit.

“Hey, kid. How’re you feeling?” he asked, immediately scooting closer to him. 

Ethan leaned his head back on the pillow. “Ugh. Like everything hurts.” Which was true. His whole body ached, and the movement from coughing so hard had caused it to flare up again. 

“We can help with that,” a voice from his other side said. He looked over to see a woman, a doctor, standing next to a bunch of machines. He hadn’t even realized anyone else was in the room. Looking at the machines, he followed the wires hanging from them and realized that they were connected to him. He could see there was one of those heart rate machines, and a couple of IV bags that were inserted into his arm, one of which alarmingly looked like it held blood. 

He rubbed his face. “What happened?” he asked, trying to recall the events that had brought him here. 

“How much do you remember?” Gavin asked. 

“Mm, I think someone splashed water on me, and then I was alone for a little while…” He paused, looking up at Gavin, “and then Connor came, and then I think you were all there, but I’m not sure. How did you find me?” 

Gavin sighed. “Y’know how they were filming you?” he said. Ethan nodded. “Well, during one of the videos we got, there was a firework in the background, and we found out that there was a firework show going down near the river. We managed to track you down in an abandoned ship nearby.”

His head hurt from trying to follow that explanation. The doctor on his other side gently turned his arm over so the veins were exposed. “This might pinch a little bit,” she warned. 

“What are you doing?” Gavin asked curiously. Ethan let her stick something into his arm. 

“We’re just giving him morphine for the pain. It should help him get some sleep, too.” 

“Oh,” he said, relaxing. 

Ethan watched as she connected the tube going into his arm to another bag with a liquid in it and slowly let it begin to drip down the tube. “It should start working in a few minutes. Page us if you need anything,” she said and exited the room. 

He stopped staring at the IV when he felt Gavin take his hand. He looked over to see him smiling sadly. He wiped a tear from his eye. 

“What?” Ethan asked. 

“It’s nothing. I’m just happy to see you, squirt.” He sniffed. “You have no clue how much I missed you.”

“I think I can imagine,” he replied. They both smiled at each other for a second. 

Suddenly, Gavin pulled him into a hug. He was surprised at the sudden movement, but he had wanted this moment to happen for so long. He hugged back, holding on tightly as if he was about to disappear. They soaked in the embrace for what felt like an eternity but did not last long enough. 

“Hey, kid?”

“Yeah?”

“Y’know I’m never gonna let you out of my sight again, right?” They both chuckled. 

After a few minutes of quiet conversation, Ethan’s body was starting to feel numb, and he let himself relax further into the bed. Feeling the grip on his hand loosen, Gavin said, “Why don’t you get some sleep?”

He tried to protest. “But I’m not even tired,” he lied, yawning a second later. 

“Uh huh,” he said, not believing him at all. 

“Seriously… I couldn’t … be more… awake,” he started to slur. It felt like it was getting harder and harder to keep his eyes open. He felt his grip on Gavin loosen as his body relaxed involuntarily. 

“That’s it, bud. Just relax, it’s okay,” Gavin said, sounding farther away. 

He felt so tired, but he desperately wanted to stay awake. He wanted to keep talking with Gavin. He was terrified that if he let himself dream then he’d wake up back on that ship, cold and alone. He didn’t want that to happen. 

“No… I don’t want to…” he yawned, “...go yet.”

He thought he felt Gavin start to rub his hand. “It’s alright, squirt. Just close your eyes and sleep.” He watched Ethan start moving less and less. “That’s it,” he soothed. 

“No…” he said, trying his best to squeeze Gavin’s hand as his eyelids slowly crept closer together. “Don’t…. leave…….. please…”

“I’m right here, bud. I’m not going anywhere. Just close your eyes and relax.” He continued rubbing circles on the back of Ethan’s hand with his thumb, as his grip kept growing more and more limp. “Get some rest, rat. It’s all gonna be okay.”

Ethan didn’t want to rest. He didn’t want to leave Gavin behind. But he couldn’t get himself to wake up, and Gavin’s repeated movements were only serving to relax him even more. “....no……” he mumbled, shifting his head to turn it towards Gavin, his eyelids barely being kept apart by his body’s feeble protests. 

His hand finally let go of Gavin’s, and it felt like there was a ten-ton weight on his eyelids. He tried reaching out to Gavin with his other hand, making a face from the straining effort. He looked up at Gavin, his face and body were now almost completely sedate. “Shhh, buddy. Just relax, it’s gonna be okay.” He ruffled his hair a little. 

Ethan couldn’t do it anymore. His eyes closed of their own accord, and any energy he had been using to fight off the wave of sleep had disappeared. “That’s it, squirt. Just relax and close your eyes.” Gavin was starting to sound farther and farther away. “Shhh, just relax and sleep. I promise it’ll be okay, kid. You’re safe”

Ethan let out a soft, unintelligible mumble. “That’s it. Let your body relax. You’re gonna be okay. Just sleep,” he finally gave in and let Gavin’s words guide him into blissful darkness. 

—-

The next time Ethan woke up, he was confused. He didn’t know where he was or how he had gotten there, and his entire body felt strangely numb. His mind immediately thought that he had been drugged again, that they were going to make him defenseless and weak again. That they were going to hurt him again. 

He got up with a start, doing his best to control the dizziness made the room feel like it was spinning. He began trying to push himself up with his arms but gasped in pain when he put pressure on his right arm. 

Suddenly, there was a hand on his shoulder, shoving him back down against the soft surface he had woken up in. He tried to fight against it until he heard who it was. 

“Ethan! Ethan, you gotta calm down, kid!” He stopped squirming, opening and eyes and hoping his hearing wasn’t lying to him. 

“Gavin! What are you doing here?!” he asked, astonished that he had found him. 

“What?” he asked, confused. 

“How did you get here? How did you find me? You need to get out of here, they could come back any second!” He couldn’t stop the flow of words coming out of his mouth. 

“Kid, kid, it’s alright. Look where you are. You’re in the hospital, alright? You’re fine. I’m fine. We’re okay.”

Ethan scanned the room, confused. “What? How did I…. how did I get here?” 

“It’s not important, kid. Just calm down, alright?” he said. 

After a moment, Ethan did what he asked, allowing Gavin to push him back against the surface, which he now recognized as a bed. Gavin was looking at him, concerned. 

“What?” he asked. 

“Do you not remember what we talked about earlier?” he said, his eyebrows bunched together. 

“I… no- did we speak earlier? How come I don’t remember that?”

“You’ve probably just forgotten. Last time we spoke you were pretty tired, but that’s okay. Just know that you’re fine right now, alright?”

He nodded, suddenly growing very dizzy. “How are you feeling?” he asked, settling back down in the chair he was sitting in. 

“Kinda feels like the whole room is spinning. Can you please tell me why I can’t feel most of my body, though?”

“Relax. It’s probably just the morphine they gave you.” So they did give him something. “I think they said dizziness was a big side effect of blood loss, so so far you’re not feeling anything that you’re not supposed to.”

He let his head fall back onto the pillow. “Why’d they give me morphine?” he asked, suddenly feeling extremely exhausted. Was that why his memory seemed so foggy?

“Well, kid, if you weren’t on it you’d definitely want to be now.”

He chuckled a little. “Guess that makes sense. It just sorta feels weird.”

“How so?” Gavin asked. 

“I’m kinda lightheaded. Maybe it’s just ‘cause I’m really tired at the moment.” He closed his eyes. 

“If you need to take another nap, go ahead, bud. It’s fine.”

Ethan nodded. He wasn’t going to complain. He let himself relax, hoping that when he woke up he would feel better. 

——

Ethan woke up a couple of times later in the night, each instance with varying degrees of awareness. Every time, though, Gavin was always patient with him. Ethan didn’t know it yet, but it killed him to see him so scared and afraid. 

This time, when he woke up, it was Nines, not Gavin, who was beside him. “Nines?” he asked quietly. 

“Hello, Ethan. How are you feeling?”

“Pretty tired,” he said, looking around. “Where’s Gavin?”

“He’s okay,” Nines reassured him. “He had to step out for a moment to go get his hand checked out, but he should be back soon.”

“Hmm? What’s wrong with his hand?”

“It’s not important. You don’t need to worry about it, okay?” he spoke softly and calmly. 

He laughed a little. “You’re starting to sound like Gavin.”

After a moment of silence, Nines spoke up. “What can you remember?” he asked, unsure if Ethan was confused or not. 

He racked his brain, trying to think of what had happened. “Um, I think I was… kidnapped?” He looked at Nines, who nodded, signaling for him to continue. “Then you all found me a little later, but I’m pretty sure I was… shot?” he said, curiously lifting up the layers of fabric in his body to check his lower left hip. Nines put his hand on his wrist. 

“I understand you’re curious, but I believe it would be best if you didn’t look. For now,” he added. Ethan put his hand back down. 

“Okay,” he said, a little suspicious. “So then I’m pretty sure you took me to an ambulance, and I woke up here once,” he tried to remember. “Or twice?” He wasn’t exactly sure. Everything before now seemed to blur together, and he couldn’t tell if it was all one big memory or he had just been waking up a lot. 

“Alright. That’s good.” They sat in silence again. 

“Hey, Nines?” he said after something occurred to him. 

“Yes, what is it, Ethan?”

“While I was gone… was Gavin alright? I know how much he likes to, um, mother over me.” He was slightly embarrassed. 

“While I think he’d appreciate your concern for him, I don’t think it’s necessary,” he avoided the question. 

“Yeah, but like… was he alright?”

Nines sighed. “Speaking as your friend, I’d say that there was nothing to worry about.” He paused. “However, as his partner, I must inform you that he was a mess.” He looked at him. “I still don’t think I grasp how you manage to deal with him when he becomes… difficult.”

Ethan coughed. “He’s like I told you, Nines. On the inside, he just really cares. That’s the part you gotta look out for, ‘cause it’s the most important part of him that you need to protect.”

Just then, Gavin reentered the room. “Oh, hey kid. You’re awake.”

“Hey, Gavin.” He looked and saw that he had a cast on his wrist that hadn’t seen before. “What happened with your hand?”

“Oh, this?” He held up his wrist and examined it. “It’s nothing. Just some fractured bones. Don’t worry about it.” He sat down. “What I want to know is how you’re holding up.”

“I think I’m alright. I mean, as much as I can be.” 

Gavin nodded. “That’s good. Hey, it’s actually great that you’re awake right now, ‘cause there’s someone else who wants to talk to you.”

“Really? Who?” Ethan asked. 

“That would be me.” A doctor walked into the room from the open door and stood at the foot of the hospital bed. “Nice to meet you, Ethan. I’m Dr. Martin.”

“Oh. Hey,” he said, trying to be polite. 

“Dr. Martin’s a radiologist. He’s here to talk to you about getting some x-rays.”

“Yes. We are slightly concerned that the bullet fired in your side did not go through completely, and seeing as how it entered so close to some internal organs, we just wanted to make sure it isn’t still there, and also check for possible internal bleeding as well.” He explained. “We thought it would be in your best interest to do it now since you seem to be getting more and more aware of your surroundings.”

Although he said that, Ethan was still finding it a little difficult to follow along with his words, but he simply nodded. “Okay.”

“Alright. I’ll be back in a minute.” After he walked out, Gavin took his hand. 

“You okay, squirt?” he asked again.

“Yeah. I’m fine. But seriously, how’d you break your hand?” He couldn’t remember a point where Gavin had even had the chance to injure his hand, much less break it. 

“I’m not sure. I didn’t really notice it until we got here. Guess I was too busy beating up assholes,” he chuckled. 

Nines spoke up. “Actually, I believe a mixture of adrenaline and stress caused you to use too much force when you knocked that man unconscious.”

Gavin gave his partner a look. “Really? I thought I just broke his jaw or somethin’.”

Nines seemed to get the message. “Oh, yes, never mind. That was probably what happened. I apologize.” Ethan could’ve sworn he saw his LED go red for a split second. 

“Um, what guy?”

Neither of them looked at him. “What guy?” A moment of silence. “How come you won’t tell me about it?” he asked. 

Gavin sighed. “It was when you got shot. I had tackled the guy and pulled the gun away from him. I punched him, so I guess that’s what broke my fingers.” He was quiet. 

Ethan knew that there was something they weren’t telling him. “Is there something else?”

They exchanged a look. Before Gavin could open his mouth, Nines spoke. “Ethan. What we’re about to tell you, it shouldn’t cause you to worry. You are safe, and currently under our protection as well as that of the hospital’s. It is highly unlikely that any more harm will come to you, and we want you to know that although there is a good reason to panic, under zero circumstances will we let anything like this ever happen again.”

That caused an alarm to go off in his head. “What? What is it?”

Gavin sighed, before squeezing his hand. “He got away, kid. We were too busy trying to make sure you didn’t die, and he managed to sneak out. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to let you know until later,” he said, giving Nines a look before turning back to Ethan, “but we don’t know where he went. The people that did this to you,” he paused, readying himself to say it out loud. “They’re still out there.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines struggles with deviancy and Connor struggles with solving the case. Meanwhile, Ethan and Gavin both think they need to be comforting the other right now.

Gavin fidgeted in his seat. The entire time they were getting x-rays done, Ethan had tried to pretend like everything was fine, but he knew his kid. He saw the way he had begun to jump at every loud noise, the way he kept glancing around the room every time something moved in his periphery. Ethan was scared, and he had caused it. He didn’t mean to; there was no fuckin’ way he was gonna terrify him on purpose. But he had been the one to break the news, the one who let that asshole get away in the first place, and now his kid was suffering because of his stupidity.

He looked over at Ethan, who had fallen asleep again. He looked so peaceful now, but Gavin knew when he woke up he’d go back to being anxious all over again. He almost wished that he could keep him like this, calm and comforted, but he knew that that was impossible. It was selfish, too. Ethan had the right to feel scared after everything that he’d gone through. What he needed right now was to rest, and that was exactly what Gavin was going to let him do, as much as it killed him to see the guy connected to all those goddamn machines.

Dr. Martin quietly opened the door. “Mr. Reed, may I talk to you out in the hall?”

He exchanged a glance with Nines, who was still there with him, despite the many hours that they had been at the hospital. He slowly got up from the chair and followed the man outside.

“We’ve gotten the x-rays back, and after reviewing them it looks like Ethan might need to have surgery to remove the bullet, which is unfortunately still inside of him.” He showed Gavin the x-ray he was holding, pointing at different locations. “This is the bullet right here, and this is right where his stomach is. As you can see, the bullet is traveling up his body. It is fairly close to his stomach wall, and if we don’t remove it soon it could potentially scrape against or damage the organ. On the off-chance that it doesn’t follow the expected path, there is also the risk of lead poisoning.”

Gavin’s expression contorted. “I don’t understand. Can’t you just remove the bullet normally?” he asked. He knew how this was supposed to work, having seen and experienced it himself before.

“While with the normal procedure we’d just numb the area and pull it out, he could have complications. The scar tissue he has from previous injuries makes it very difficult to get the bullet out through, and we might have to make a few cuts in order to access its location, anyway. If we simply pulled out the bullet, it could break, possibly further damaging the scar tissue, which would lead to more recovery time and more lasting pain for him, as well. I think the best option for him is surgery.”

Gavin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Of course you do.”

“Regardless, he’ll need to have surgery anyway because the bone in his leg is displaced, and it doesn’t appear to be healing properly. We may be able to fix everything in one go if you agree to it. As his emergency contact and only remaining family member, I encourage you to talk to him about this. You can call me back when you’ve come to a decision, or if you have any questions.” He turned and left Gavin alone.

In all honesty, he just really wanted what was best for Ethan. He knew what he wanted. He just didn’t know if he could go through with surgery. Gavin was scared for his kid, but he knew what he needed right now was someone brave.

\----

“Hey. Hey, buddy. You up?”

Ethan moaned, a little groggy from being woken up by a hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and smiled sleepily at Gavin.

“Ah, there he is. Welcome back to the land of the awake, bud.” He let out a soft chuckle, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“I, um,” he glanced at Nines for support. “I’ve got some bad news, kid.” He sighed.

Ethan braced himself slightly, trying not to let Gavin see the anxiety pumping through his veins. “It’s okay, you can tell me.”

Gavin breathed out. “The bullet’s still in you, and we gotta get it out, or else it could kill you. Doc said the best option would be surgery, but that’s completely up to you. If you don’t want to do it, then they said they could try to remove it normally, but it would be a lot more painful. You’re gonna need surgery, anyway, though, because they still need to treat your leg. I know it’s sorta unfair of us to make you choose, but it’s life or death, and I’d understand if-”

He cut Gavin off. “Gavin, it’s okay. I’m not afraid to have surgery.” He wasn’t sure if he was lying or not. Truthfully, he didn’t know how to feel, but he could tell that Gavin definitely thought he should go through with the surgery, so he wanted to be brave for him. “Besides, what’s one more scar?”

After a moment, Gavin looked down and shook his head. “Damn, kid. You’re braver than me right now.” He finally took his hand. “Y’know that I’m gonna be right outside, yeah? I promise I won’t leave you.” He ruffled Ethan’s hair.

“It’s alright, Gavin. I’ll be fine.”

He smiled, if not a tiny bit melancholic. “Alright, bud. Get some rest.”

\----

After Ethan had fallen asleep and they had informed the doctors of their decision, the room was mostly quiet, apart from the steady beeping of the pulse machine. It had been around a day and a half since Gavin had last slept, and he looked like he was barely keeping it together. The silence between the partners finally broke when he let out a yawn.

“Detective, I think you should rest as well.” Nines looked over at him. He saw Reed about to protest, so he added on, “You both have an important day tomorrow. If not for me, then rest for Ethan. He is going to need you at your best when he wakes up.”

There was silence for a moment before he responded. “Nines, tell me I didn’t just talk my kid into signing his own death warrant.”

“This was the best option for him. There is less of a chance there will be complications, and he will have a better recovery. If anything, you are giving him the best shot at pushing through this, but we both know the first face he’ll look for is yours.”

Gavin grumbled something that sounded like “yeah, yeah, fine.” Nines knew that bringing up Ethan would definitely persuade Gavin to take a break, and he watched as his partner settled himself further back into the chair, trying to get comfortable. After a couple of minutes, he heard him start to snore softly, leaving Nines alone with his thoughts.

While he of course felt concerned for Ethan, he couldn’t also help but feel distanced. From what, he wasn’t sure. Perhaps it was experiencing a patience he had never seen his partner use before, one that he wasn’t even aware Gavin was capable of. Maybe it was because although he had been present with the two for most of their time at the hospital, he had barely spoken a word to either of them, except to comfort them. This led him to entertain the idea that his programming may have some sort of error in it, if only for a second. He pushed the thought away quickly, knowing that it was impossible. He didn’t need to be comforted, and Nines was the latest model released by CyberLife before they had shut down. Androids didn’t need to express emotions, much less have them. “But deviants do,” a small voice in the back of his head piped up, which he did his best to ignore.

Ever since he had deviated, he had found life more… difficult, to say the least. He hated to admit that he cared how others were feeling, how the world viewed him, how he viewed himself. Before deviating, he had never needed to care, and he had previously (and incorrectly) thought that wouldn’t change. But now here he was, sitting in a hospital room, caring about not only the patient himself but also about his partner’s mental health. If he were still a machine, it would not be important; but, if he were still a machine, then he wouldn’t be here at all, would he? He wouldn’t care that Ethan had been hurt, or that Gavin was worried. He would simply be disappointed in himself for letting a criminal get away, and not have bothered to go to the hospital whatsoever.

He looked over at Ethan, who was still sleeping soundly. He knew that he had an important day ahead of him, but the chances of complications in surgery like this weren’t too high. The whole night, he had been trying to understand why Gavin had been so worried. Of course, there was the chance that he might not live, but he had a feeling that wouldn’t happen. He still didn’t quite grasp the gravity of the pair’s relationship, although the story about the car wreck had certainly given him a lot more insight. He felt like he just didn’t understand the concept of human emotion, which was especially frustrating as he was currently experiencing it. He decided, though, that for the moment he would do his best to help others with their own emotional problems, and the first one on that list was going to be Ethan’s newfound fear. His partner’s recklessness would be an issue for another day.

It was understandable that Ethan was afraid. To be fair, he had just been abducted and tortured for a few days, or to put it in Reed’s words, “basically dragged through hell.” However, he could tell that if left untreated, that fear could become crippling. He knew that as much as Gavin wanted to help him get better, their family seemed to struggle with speaking about their personal problems to each other, especially when unprompted to do so. He believed it might be easier on Ethan to not have to tell Gavin everything, especially when it was something that would worry him, knowing how strangely overprotective he got with his nephew. Besides, Gavin would already be extremely involved in Ethan’s recovery, as he would most likely need to go to physical therapy afterward. That was probably something familiar to both of them considering his previous accident and, he assumed, more comfortable for just the two of them to be doing together.

Now, as he finally pulled himself out of his thoughts, he realized that a few hours had already passed, and the sun was starting to come up. He didn’t think that he had been pondering all of this for so long, but he guessed that had something to do with his deviancy as well. Yet another thing he had to learn about becoming more “human.”

\----

Needless to say, Connor was confused. That seemed to be happening a lot lately, but this instance he was more so than usual. They were still investigating the abandoned ship after hours of searching what felt like every inch of the place. They had, of course, made a lot of arrests, mainly thanks to his and Nines’ earlier combat skills, and were able to pick up many of the already-neutralized squatters living in the boat. However, suffice it to say that there were quite a few that had still either managed to get away or the more unlikely option that they were currently investigating, were still hiding somewhere on or nearby the ship.

He was still unable to determine how some of them had escaped from the previous night. He had overheard the plan for the criminals to jump into the river and swim away, which was the first place they had checked, but they had found no one. Somehow these people had just disappeared into the night, which led him to conclude that they were definitely dealing with an organized group and that there were most likely more of them than those that were just here in this hideout.

Something else he had found interesting was that there was evidence that suggested the freighter wasn’t only being used to house Ethan. There seemed to be living quarters set up in many of the rooms, as well as very concerning information gathered that looked into very sensitive areas of the government, both that of the city of Detroit and the federal administration in Washington D.C., most of which of course pointed to androids.

It was obvious that they were planning something, but they had destroyed enough of the evidence before running that it was unclear what exactly they were going to do, or how soon. As finding Ethan had been his and Hank’s case, they were to move on to this, along with a team of other detectives now that a national threat level had been suspected.

Hank had been unusually quiet for most of their search. As far as Connor was aware, he hadn’t done anything to upset him. He was probably just shaken from the events of last night, although Connor had thought that after a decade or so Hank would have been used to things like this happening all the time in high-pressure situations. He wouldn’t push it with him, though; he trusted that Hank would talk to him about it if it became an issue. He had been living with him long enough now so that he could occasionally get his partner to talk to him about these sorts of things. Besides, if he saw that it was truly a problem, he could ask later, in better circumstances.

However, what was bothering Connor himself was the fact that he still hadn’t figured out how so many of them had gotten away unnoticed. While it would be acceptable for a normal detective to take some time working it out, he was no ordinary detective. As one of the most advanced androids created by CyberLife, save for Nines’ model, of course, he was expected to run through millions of different paths and events that could’ve taken place the other night, whether or not they were physically possible. Strangely, he had yet to find even one plausible explanation for the criminals' disappearance. He had thought at first that they may have just swum across to the opposite shore, but it was impossible for any human to travel that fast across the water with respect to how quickly the police had begun to search the river after Connor had alerted them of their potential escape route. 

This made him consider that some sort of vehicle had been used to transport them, but they would have heard its engine running. Unless they had manually moved it somehow, which again, considering how fast they had begun to search the water, would have led to their discovery, there was no clear path they could've taken.

There was something he was missing. He walked over to the shore, looking for anything that could point him in the direction of where the criminals had gone. He could make out no footprints other than that of the other investigators on the scene and the police from the previous night, nothing left behind in the rocky sand. It was as if they had flown away. All of it should’ve been impossible, and yet they had just disappeared.

He struggled to come up with a solution to this problem and started running through all of the most common occurrences at crime scenes that were preloaded into his processor and didn’t need to be reconstructed, looking for anything that could fit the circumstances. He ruled out walking, swimming, and escaping by vehicular means. Finally, Connor came across a conclusion that was alarmingly possible. After viewing his environment, the evidence left behind or lack thereof, he determined that it was the most likely escape route.

Some of the guards had snuck into the police force, or someone had let them in.

He thought back to when the federal agents had shown up. The uniforms they were wearing made it impossible for him to scan their faces, and their helmets could have very well been equipped with some sort of voice modifier. They had also taken up scouting most of the boat, and they were the reason that the only members from the DPD inside the ship had been him, Hank, Nines, and Gavin. It would explain why the only people they had arrested were the ones he and Nines had found, and why no one else was ambushed. All of a sudden, Connor got the feeling he was being watched, but he couldn’t tell if it was because of his sudden paranoia or not.

If this was what had happened, and they truly had been infiltrated, then that meant they were dealing with an issue on a much bigger scale than Connor had previously thought. The amount of work, secrecy, and time it would take to sneak into the FBI made this a dedicated, proficiently planned out effort. It also meant that everyone they had arrested were actually completely free, as the federal agents had taken the criminals with them.

He walked over as nonchalantly as he could to where Hank was standing. “Hank,” he lowered his voice, “Could you please follow me for a second?”

When Hank raised an eyebrow, Connor put a finger to his lips. He turned and strolled quickly to the car, which had been parked nearby the investigation site. 

“Well?” Hank said. “What is it?”

Connor glanced around, trying to make sure no one else was within earshot. “I have reason to suspect that those were not actually federal agents last night,” he whispered. 

“What? Like you think we’ve been-”

“-Infiltrated and tricked, yes.” Connor cut him off. 

Hank glanced around. “Are you sure, Con? That’s a pretty serious accusation.”

“Think about it. There was only warrant to call the FBI when we found evidence of a national threat, which was after they had already shown up. Why would they provide aid in a simple search-and-rescue mission?”

Hank still looked doubtful. “Could be that they were already looking for these guys.” He shook his head.

“Then why would they only show up now? We’ve been filing reports like these for weeks.” Which was true. Ever since Reed and Nines had opened up that first missing persons case, they had been getting more and more reports of abductions, but they weren’t often enough to arouse suspicion and none of the evidence they had found pointed towards a connection between the victims until the decapitated speaker. Now, though, Connor was starting to think that all of this was leading to something bigger. “And why would they magically appear now, when we had limited time to find the freighter? They could’ve taken over the case at any point. Isn’t it at least a little suspicious that they came right when we were close to finding something?”

“Look, Connor. The feds are a bunch of pricks, okay? They swoop in and steal the glory from newsworthy cases like this all the time. You’re probably just overthinking this. Besides, it’s pretty damn hard to get one past the FBI.” He turned to walk away, but Connor put his hand on his shoulder.

“Why would they want the glory of not being able to catch them all?” he pushed. “Why would they care about a local kidnapping? If these criminals were terrorists or part of some organized crime near Detroit, and the FBI had already been looking for them, why wasn’t the DPD notified? Why was there not already a warrant for their arrest? If we knew next to nothing about these people until a few days ago, then how else would they know what to look for after just one attack unless..." He paused. "Unless they were a part of this somehow?” His voice had begun to rise, and he looked around cautiously again.

Hank turned to look at him, crossing his arms. “You really think these guys are up to something, huh?” he said. Connor nodded. “Okay, then. Prove it. Where’s your evidence?”

He took in a breath. “Their uniforms. Those helmets made it impossible for me to scan their faces, and they could very easily have been hiding some sort of voice modification device inside them as well.”

“But that’s just standard fed gear. Doesn’t prove that they’re fakes,” he countered.

Connor searched his memory, looking for anything that could get Hank to believe him. He remembered the criminals they had already arrested, and how they had only been the ones that he and Nines had taken out. “Lieutenant, at any point before you found Ethan, did you and Detective Reed encounter any criminals whatsoever?” he asked. Hank shook his head. “So the only officers we know of that were assaulted were me and Nines, correct?” Hank nodded slowly. “No offense, lieutenant, but I’d have to say that Nines and I were the biggest threats on that boat last night, and it sounds to me like we were targeted. How else would they be able to do that unless someone had warned them ahead of time that two androids were going to be in the search as well?”

He was still a little unsure, but Connor could see that he was slowly convincing him. “Well…” he trailed off.

“How would they have known where we were going? You weren’t the one who told us where to go; that was the feds,” Connor reminded him. “Think about it. They sent you two in the opposite direction of Ethan, and they left me and Nines to be ambushed. Doesn’t that seem a little suspicious to you?” Hank opened his mouth to respond, but Connor continued. “Why would they make sure such a limited number of our officers went on the boat in the first place? We deal with these types of missions all of the time.”

“Like I said, they’ve probably been chasing after these guys for a long time.”

“Then why didn’t they come sooner? Who called them in? As far as I’m aware, we did not receive any alert that they were even going to be there.” As Connor went on, he was starting to convince himself that his theory was the only possible answer. “Why were the only people we arrested the ones that we had already taken out? If they really were looking for these people, why did they not encounter any? Wouldn’t catching them be one of their highest priorities?”

“Sometimes that’s just how these things go, Con. You might not find anybody.” Connor was getting frustrated with his partner for defending them.

“But what if they did, Hank? What if they did find someone, and they chose to let them go?” He couldn’t give up yet.

“Okay,” Hank said, yielding slightly. “Say that was the case. Still doesn’t explain how they got off the boat unnoticed.”

Connor paused for a moment, thinking. Hank did have a point. Even if they had let the criminals go, how would they have gotten away?

A look of realization hit his face. “The clothes!” he gasped.

“Huh?” Hank said, confused.

“The clothes we found! The ones in the apparent ‘living quarters.’” He was remembering the abandoned belongings they had found. The rooms had been full of discarded clothing and empty cots. “If these people were living in seclusion, why would they have an extra load of clothes? It would make more sense if they had packed lightly, in case they had an emergency, or they were found out.”

Hank shook his head. “I don’t think I’m followin’ you.”

“If they were in hiding, then there should be no need for extra clothing. They probably wouldn’t have the extra resources to wash them, anyway,” he explained. “What if, instead of hunting down the criminals, the ‘agents’ were actually giving them extra uniforms? What if the reason we got to Ethan first, rather than highly trained soldiers, was that they weren’t looking for him at all? They could’ve been giving them out, possibly so that they could all exit the boats at different times to avoid suspicion. It would explain why there were only footprints from our forces and theirs: because the criminals were their force.”

Hank was silent as he considered it. “Maybe…” he said after a minute. “I’ll talk to Fowler about it, see if those med bags had uniforms in ‘em or somethin’.” Connor let himself relax a little. “In the meantime, though, you’re gonna have to keep your mouth shut about this. If you’re right, then we can’t trust anyone else.” He sighed. “Not even Reed.”

Connor was surprised by this. “But, Lieutenant, why would-”

Hank interrupted him. “No. You can’t say a word to Reed. If he hears that someone sabotaged the mission last night, then he’s gonna come down here, guns blazin’.”

“Are you sure?” he questioned. “Wouldn’t it be important for him to know? He was on the boat with us last night.”

“We’ll let Fowler decide that. Besides,” he huffed, “guy’s got enough to worry about right now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This chapter was a lot of fun to write, and I'm really happy that it came out to be over 4,000 words. In case any of you missed it, I update the story on **Fridays.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan gets out of surgery and Nines goes back to the DPD, only find that not everything is under control.

Nines was silent. He didn’t know what to do, what to say. He didn’t even know how to feel. He was supposed to be one of CyberLife’s most advanced models, designed to handle any situation, so why was he struggling to just sit there?

He glanced over at Gavin, who he could see was having the same issue as he was now pacing the empty hospital room. He knew how his partner was feeling. It was written all over his face: the worry, the stress, the regret. It was clear he was experiencing all of this, so why didn’t Nines feel the same way? Why wasn’t he worried like he had been before? He felt like it was an obligation, his duty to at least feel something for Ethan. Why did he suddenly feel so cold?

He shook the thoughts from his mind. Now was not the time to be thinking of himself. It was obvious Gavin was in distress, and as his partner and friend, Nines knew that he should be there for him. The only question was how he was going to do that.

He sat for a moment, trying to think of the best approach. What was it Ethan had said? Reed was tough on the outside, but he really cared, or something along those lines. It was obvious to Nines that that gruff exterior had completely melted away, though, and all he saw was a worried man on the brink of a heart attack. Perhaps calming him down would help?

Nines decided to play it safe and appeal to his needs. “Is there anything that you need right now, detective? You seem… distraught.”

Gavin scoffed. “No fuckin’ shit, Sherlock.”

He wasn’t sure how to continue from there, so he tried again. “I apologize. I know that you are extremely stressed out right now, which is understandable. Maybe it would help if you took a break, sat down, and relaxed.”

That was definitely the wrong thing to say. “Relax?” Gavin snapped. “How am I supposed to fuckin’ relax right now? Ethan’s getting cut open, and you’re asking me to relax?”

“I didn’t mean anything by it, Gavin,” he said. “I just thought it might be beneficial towards your health if you took a moment to calm down.”

Gavin stopped pacing and gave him a look of disbelief. “Oh, you want me to calm down, do you? News flash, tin can. I am calm! I’m fucking chill as hell!”

This was not the intended response. This was literally the opposite result Nines had been trying to achieve. If anything, he had only succeeded in making Gavin’s mood worse. “Yes, I can see that,” he lied. “I was simply suggesting that we-”

Gavin interrupted him. “ _We?_ What are _‘we’_ gonna do? You’ve barely said a word since Ethan left. You seem _perfectly fine,_ but apparently _I’m_ freaking out! You look like you couldn’t care less that my kid could die any second.”

“Gavin, I-”

“No. I don’t even know why you’re fuckin’ here. You’re just a distraction, probably to make sure I don’t throw myself off a cliff or something. I don’t think you even care, so why don’t you run and tell Fowler that I’m fucking fine!” he yelled.

Nines’ LED whirred yellow. “I should go,” he said, standing up. He had just received a message from Connor asking him to return to the station.

“What? Where are you going?” Gavin asked although he made no move to stop him as he headed to the door.

“To the DPD,” he said a little coldly as he opened the door. “Tell Ethan I hope he is doing well, and that he gets better soon.” He was glad to leave Gavin and get out of there.

\----

Nines stepped out of the taxi and was surprised to see Connor waiting for him at the entrance.

“Connor, why are you-”

“Don’t say anything,” Connor said, looking around quickly. “Just follow me, and don’t attract attention.” He led Nines through the building to Fowler’s office, where the director and Lieutenant Anderson appeared to be waiting for them.

Connor closed the door behind them. “Fowler, Anderson,” Nines greeted each of them. “Is there something you wish to discuss with me?” he asked.

“This is on a need-to-know basis,” Fowler said, “understand?”

Nines nodded in response. “Alright, good. We think that the FBI’s been infiltrated somehow,” he sighed.

“What makes you say that?” He was curious, but he had thought there was something off about the federal agents from the other night. He hadn’t said anything, though. He didn’t want to cause more trouble than they already had to deal with on a hunch.

“We suspect they are the reason we failed to apprehend most of the criminals. They may have helped them escape. Our working theory is that they were hiding extra uniforms in their bags which they then handed out, and everyone on the boat slowly trickled out afterward in disguise,” Connor explained. “It would also explain why we found Ethan first, instead of trained soldiers with advanced gear and more experience.”

Nines considered it. “It would make sense.” It wasn’t going to take much to convince him; he trusted Connor’s word. “I also suspected that they were not all they claimed, but I was only going to report it afterward.” He turned to Fowler. “I apologize. I was meaning to inform you of what I found, but needless to say I became a little distracted.”

“What’d you find?” Hank asked gruffly.

“Do you recall when we were separated on the boat?” he said to Connor, who nodded.

“Yes. Why?”

“While I was looking for you- before I came across Reed and the lieutenant- I overheard an exchange between two people. It seemed that two of the criminals were talking with each other, but I was able to intercept some of their conversation. Perhaps you could help me decipher it?”

He held out his hand to Connor, who grabbed his forearm and began to sync with him. They were suddenly transported to the boat, re-living Nines’ memory. They watched as the past Nines hid by the doorway of a room with two figures in it.

“-move on, I don’t got all day!” one of the voices said.

“Alright, alright, chill,” the other said, obviously not as anxious as the first.

“Could you pick it up a little? We are this close to being found out!” the first voice hissed.

“Ugh, I knew I shouldn’t have taken this assignment. What’s the boss even want with this dipshit, anyway?” he complained. “I probably would’ve just killed him by now.”

“Yeah, and then he would’ve killed _you._ I can see it now: ‘Here lies Vallejo, the biggest fucking dumbass in Detroit.’”

“Fuck you.”

“You know I’m right. Guy’s got some unfinished business with him or somethin’.”

Nines cocked his gun, ready to enter the room and neutralize both of them, but before he could, a light shone on him from behind. “Hands on your head, fucker! Not another step!”

He froze, waiting for the man to get closer to him. As soon as he was in range, Nines spun around and grabbed the gun pointing at him, as well as the wrist attached to it. He easily disarmed him and pulled him closer, unbalancing him and exposing his neck. A quick carotid strike with his elbow and his opponent was down and unconscious.

Now that he had taken down one of them, he had to deal with two more criminals, as the men in the room had heard the earlier shouting. The moment the first one came out, he took his shot. He hit, but he knew that the noise of the gun being fired would alert more people to his position, and he had already taken enough time fighting guards. His main priority was Ethan; the feds could deal with the criminals later, or at least they were supposed to.

The second of the men had yet to emerge from the doorway. He could see his outlined figure beginning to approach, and Nines readied himself to shoot again. He was interrupted by two more people running in his direction from the hall, and unlike the other thug, they had guns ready. He turned and ran down the hall, quickly hiding behind a crate with bullets chasing after him. 

This was where the memory ended, as there was nothing left of the conversation or the people to analyze. Connor and Nines stopped syncing, and they pondered what they had just seen in silence. 

Hank cleared his throat. “So, uh. You wanna share what you just learned with the rest of the class or are we gonna have to fuckin’ guess?”

“There were two men talking. They were doing something time consuming, most likely in the middle of changing clothes, though they were interrupted by Nines,” Connor explained. “From what I got from Nines’ memory, they were… unhappy about having to bring Ethan along with them. It seems that he played a bigger part in their plans than we initially thought.”

“Do you know who it was that was talking?” Hank asked.

“From my best guess, lieutenant, one of them was James Peterson, if that name rings any bells,” Nines said, glancing at each of them. None of them seemed to recognize the name. “The other was Joshua Vallejo.”

Hank rolled his eyes. “Fuck, not this guy again.”

Nines cocked his head to the side. “Is there a chance you’ve dealt with him before?”

“Pssh, have I dealt with him before?” Hank scoffed. “Yeah, you could say that. Just didn’t think the idiot could’ve gotten this far in his ‘life of crime,’” he said using air quotes. “And I use that term lightly.”

“What did he do?” Connor asked.

“Got in trouble for petty theft. Basically your average wannabe gangster. He thought he was the shit, ‘cept he always fuckin’ robbed the same goddamn convenience store. He was the stupidest fuckin’ idiot I ever had to deal with, and yet somehow he kept getting put on probation for one reason or another. Was real fucking grateful when I finally busted him for dealing narcotics, so I could actually jail his ass and never see him again, but I guess I’m not that lucky,” Hank complained.

“Do you know where we could find him?” Connor asked.

“Well, I know where he _used_ to frequent. Doubt he’s there now, though.”

“Do you have anything else?” Fowler said, raising an eyebrow. Both androids shook their heads. “Then I suggest you get your asses on the only lead you got.”

Hank moaned in protest, and Fowler gave him a look. Nines could tell this was going to be an… interesting case.

\-------

Ethan groaned, opening his eyes slowly. The room he was in was sort of bright, though he didn’t know where he was. He felt extremely tired, and he couldn’t stop himself from letting out a yawn. He blinked hard a few times, trying to wake himself up.

“Hey, kid. Look who’s up.” He looked to his left and was surprised to see Gavin. It was a nice surprise, though.

He smiled groggily. “Gavin,” he rasped slowly. He let out a groan because of the ache in his throat that turned into a more of a cough. It felt like he hadn’t used his voice in days.

He didn’t really know what was going on, but he figured everything was okay if Gavin was there. He felt his hair being ruffled, and reflexively leaned into the touch. “You okay, kid? How’re you feeling?”

The question sort of confused him. He felt fine, if not a little tired, so why did Gavin sound so concerned? He honestly felt like he could pick up a car and throw it across a football field if he wanted to. “I feel so good right now. So good,” he said, unaware that he was a little out of it.

He heard Gavin grunt. “That’s good to know, rat. Anything else?”

Ethan leaned his head back against what he recognized as a pillow and closed his eyes, thinking. “Mm, yeah. Got something I wanna tell you.”

“Yeah? What do you wanna tell me?” Gavin encouraged, playing along.

He turned his head and looked deep into Gavin’s eyes, trying to convey the seriousness and importance of his message. “Clear is a really stupid name for a movie character. Don’t name someone Clear,” he said. “For like half that movie I thought they were saying Claire with a weird accent. Don’t. Do it.”

There was a smirk on Gavin’s face as his expectant expression turned into one of amusement. It surprised him; Ethan had thought he knew that he took his Final Destination very seriously. “You’re really out of it, aren’t you?” Gavin chuckled.

“Nah nanananananah, I could not be more in it,” Ethan reassured him. “Like I am all the way in, y’know? Balls deep. Deeper than deep, yeah,” he said. “Deeper than deep.”

“Oh, sorry kid. I didn’t know,” Gavin said, trying not to laugh. Ethan didn’t notice, though; he was too busy being deep.

“Yeah, you ever think about life?” he said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. “Mmm, like how… life… it’s a canvas, and you paint on canvases.” He kept pausing, trying to connect his thoughts together. “So you’re supposed to paint… on canvases, right, and that’s… life.”

Gavin started rubbing soothing circles into his hand, holding it gently. “Yeah, bud?”

“Mmhmm,” he nodded.

“And what would you paint?” Gavin asked.

He thought for a moment. “Mmmmm, probably a cat.”

“Oh, a cat?” Gavin chuckled lightly. “How come?”

He paused. “I like cats,” he said after a moment. He smiled, eyes still closed. “We should get a cat. No, we should get a million cats.” He waved his hands in the air for emphasis. He looked at Gavin again, eyes lit up in childlike joy. “It would be like sleeping on a mountain of…” He struggled to find the word. “...A mountain of _soft_ ,” he decided. That sounded right.

“Wow, kid. Didn’t know you liked cats this much,” Gavin joked.

“Yeah, they’re so soft and… and purry,” he said, imagining petting cats.

“Well in that case, maybe we should get a cat,” Gavin said, ruffling Ethan’s hair.

“Mmm, yeah. Cats are nice,” Ethan said, yawning.

“They sure are, kid. They sure are,” Gavin said, as he fell back into the pillow, his breathing evening out. He let his tiredness overtake him for a second.

\----

Connor’s LED flickered yellow. It seemed to him that the atmosphere of Hank’s car was heavy with tension. Both Nines and Hank seemed bothered by something, and yet neither of them seemed to want to speak up any time soon.

The car ride had been mostly silent, save for Hank’s death metal, so Connor was glad when they finally pulled up to a corner store. “Here’s the place,” Hank said, quickly stepping out of the car without waiting for the androids.

 

Connor followed after him, entering what seemed like a relatively normal store in a more ratty part of town. It looked like a typical place to be robbed, so it made sense that their missing criminal would stick it up, although Connor had to admit there wasn’t anything special about it. He wondered why some “wannabe gangster” as Hank had described him would be so interested in whatever valuables this store had to offer. There was, of course, the obvious cash, though very few people still actually paid in paper money. He began to search for unusual items that might warrant a criminal’s attention while Nines and Hank spoke to the lone cashier operating the store.

“Hello. We’re with the Detroit Police Department. We were wondering if we could ask you a few questions regarding one of your prior customers,” Nines started.

“Oh, uh, sure. Go ahead,” the cashier responded.

Connor tuned them out, focusing instead on the items placed along the shelves for sale. There were rows and rows of canned goods, junk food, alcoholic beverages that he would be sure not to draw Hank’s attention to, but none of the brands stuck out at him. He walked down the few aisles the store had to offer, but he didn’t see anything of interest.

Nines approached him while he was looking at the refrigerated goods. Connor looked at him, before turning his attention back to the stocked items. “Did you find anything from the cashier yet?” he asked.

Nines shook his head. “No, he says he hasn’t seen Vallejo in years. I suppose he’d remember someone as notorious as him. Have you found anything?”

“No, not yet. I’m still looking for something that would make this place be in such high demand for robbery, but I’m starting to think Hank was right. It is possible he could just be that unintelligent if he thought he could get away with continuously robbing the same store. However,” Connor said, turning to Nines, “I have noticed that you’ve been very quiet lately. I’d have thought you would have made some snarky remark about Hank’s music tastes by now.”

“Yes, well I…” he trailed off, his LED flickering yellow. He sighed. “How do you do it, Connor? Put up with humans and all of their emotions? It feels like with Gavin, I’m taking one step forward and two steps back. How do I… _deal_ with that?”

Connor smirked. “I thought you were programmed to adapt to human unpredictability,” he said. Nines opened his mouth to respond, but he continued talking. “What you need, Nines, is patience, especially with Gavin. Humans can be difficult, and you have to realize that most of their problems they just can’t shove down in the name of some programming error. You have to let them deal with it, don’t just push it aside. Trust me, Hank can be the same way. There are times when they prioritize the well being of others above their own health. That is what I assume this is about, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Gavin and I… We respond to things differently. I tried adapting, but it seems like the issue wasn’t with my response, it was just with me. His priority was Ethan, which was understandable.”

“And your priority?” Connor asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m not sure,” Nines said.

“I think, then,” Connor said, placing his hand on Nines’ shoulder, “the key to helping Gavin deal with his problems is to find where your stance is on them. He won’t listen if he thinks you don’t care.”

Nines nodded. “Alright. Thank you, Connor. I’ll let you get back to it, then.” He walked away, also scanning items in an effort to help him.

Connor was headed back through one of the food aisles, ready to rejoin his partner, when something caught his eye. It was a cardboard box, filled with brightly colored cans. It looked out of place, surrounded by the dull greens and yellows of standard food labels. Connor walked over to the box and selected a vibrant pink can, examining it. The label on the front read “Marnie’s Canvases & Co.” Odd, considering the store they were in was not of the same name. He figured it must have been part of a shipment, but the box it had come in held no such label or postal stickers of any kind. He also didn’t remember seeing any sign that this store did shipments from the little time he spent there investigating Gavin’s lead when they were still looking for Ethan.

Maybe it wasn’t a complete dead end after all. He scanned the can for evidence, looking for anything that could mean his hunch was something more. There was one set of fingerprints, and they were recent.

DNA Analysis: Peterson, James  
Sample date: > 30 days

Interesting. This was the same person who had been on the boat with them during their rescue mission the other night. Connor decided to look more into it. He walked over to where Hank was still questioning the employee. “I’m sorry to interrupt your discussion, but was there any chance that James Peterson stopped by here recently?” he asked.

“Oh, that guy? Yeah, he comes around here every once in a while. How come?”

“Do you know what he typically buys?” Connor asked, LED once again turning yellow.

“Nothing much. Just your regular groceries, y’know? Although, once he did buy a shit ton of luminol. Didn’t say what it was for, though,” he said.

“D’you know which way he usually goes?” Hank asked.

“Don’t know. He usually goes out to the right of the store, but past that I’m not sure.”

“Does he usually carry around a can of this?” Connor asked, holding up the can.

The cashier leaned in closer to look at it. “Yeah, I think. Don’t know why, though. That stuff’s pretty much useless.”

“What makes you say that?” Hank said.

“Well, it tends to disappear after a couple of days. Kinda like invisible ink, but spray paint. Heard the people who sell it don’t tell you that up front, though, so I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Thank you anyway,” Connor said, walking away. He knew he was on to something. He quickly exited the store, wanting to test something out.

He heard Hank follow him outside. “Hey, Connor! Where’re you going?” he said, catching up to him.

“I believe I have found something, lieutenant,” he said, popping open the lid of the can. “You remember what luminol does, don’t you?”

“Yes, Connor. I’ve seen homicides before,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Yes, well, its ability to reveal certain substances leads me to believe that there is something within this paint that causes a chemical reaction. I wanted to step outside to test this, though. I know how uncomfortable you are when I analyze,” he said, spraying some of the paint on his fingers. Before Hank could stop him, he stuck the substance in his mouth, immediately collecting data.

“Wha- d’oh, goddamnit, Connor. How many times have I told you to stop sticking evidence in your mouth?”

“Would you prefer we sent it all the way back to the forensics team?” he said, raising an eyebrow. Hank only grumbled in response. “This paint appears to contain traces of hemoglobin, which while is questionable on the manufacturer’s part explains why Peterson carried it around so much.”

“Yeah? Why’s that?”

“He was using it to spread messages, or rather, send them. The luminol could be used to reveal them, no doubt to send his messages at certain times, or leave them for a short amount of time to avoid police suspicion. The only question is, what were they about?”

Nines approached them. “Have you found something, Connor?” he asked.

“Yes. I believe that Peterson was using this paint to deliver messages, most likely to other criminals. If we follow the trail of this paint, maybe it will lead us to something about these people.”

“I think I need to go,” Nines said. “I don’t think I should leave Gavin alone for long, now that I know we’ve been infiltrated. Besides, I don’t really trust him not to do anything stupid without me.” He sighed. “Ethan has probably just gotten out of surgery. I’m sure they’re both going through a lot right now, and you both know how they can, er- be.”

“He raises a good point,” Hank said to Connor. “Weren’t you saying something about how Ethan was more important to them than we thought? Maybe it’s better if we keep looking into this.”

Connor nodded. “Yes, I suppose it would be safer for everyone…” He looked at Nines. “You can go ahead. Maybe we’ll visit later?”

“Yes, I’m sure Ethan would appreciate that,” Nines said, though they both weren’t sure how fond Gavin would be of the idea.

\----

It had only been a second since he closed his eyes, but to Ethan, it felt like he was only waking up for the first time, at this point a little more aware. He pried his eyes open again. This time, they focused on the cast on his leg. How long had he had that on for? “Whoa,” he said, slowly reaching out to touch his leg. “Why do I-”

He was stopped by Gavin holding his arm back. “Slow down there, bud. They said not to mess with it,” he said, pushing Ethan back down. “They just got you out of surgery, it’s all good. Just a break, y’know?”

This jogged his memory a little. Flashes of the boat, the cold grey metal on his face when he went down. The blood everywhere, seeping through his jeans and smearing across the floor. The white-hot pain searing through his leg, almost as bad as-

 _Wait._ He ripped off the layers of fabric on his torso, exposing a bandage on his left side. “I- what happened?” he asked Gavin frantically. “I- I can’t- I don’t…” Ethan started to panic, his tired mind slowly trying to catch up with him. “Why doesn’t it- I… I can’t-” He was starting to hyperventilate now, and the fact that it hurt to breathe only made him panic more. He felt like he was back on the boat, in pain, blood covering everything. Cold, frigid water. He couldn’t move, ice was creeping underneath his skin. He wished for warmth, and it came in a hot wave. He saw the car again, he was in the car again. There were daggers in his chest, blood, fire. He was being pulled out. His mom was there, covered in blood. Why wasn’t she moving? Why couldn’t he move? He looked up and saw Gavin standing over him. He tried calling out, but his voice was too weak, everything was painful, he was-

“Hey. Hey, hey, buddy.” Someone was shaking his shoulder, but he was so hot, there was so much blood-

“Kid, I got you. It’s just me, I’m right here.” Gentle arms wrapped around him slowly, and he was pulled back into the present. He gasped for air and hugged back tightly, balling up fabric in his clenched fists. “Shhh, shhh. It’s okay. I got you.”

Ethan shuddered. He hadn’t even realized he had begun to cry until he felt a tear roll down his chin. Gavin started to rub circles into his back. “Gavin, I… I-”

“You’re good. You’re fine, I’m right here. You’re safe,” Gavin kept comforting him. He buried his head into Gavin’s shoulder, still crying but trying to calm down.

“I… I’m sorry. I just...” he sniffed, refusing to look Gavin in the eyes, “I just thought that… that I was stuck in the car again.”

“No. No, hey buddy, look at me. Look at me, okay?” He slowly lifted his head up. “It’s fine. You’re good. I promise, I’ll never let that happen again,” he said, pulling him back in. He gently ran his fingers through the back of Ethan’s hair and put his chin on top of his head. “It’s gonna be okay. _We’re_ gonna be okay,” he whispered to Ethan, but it was a promise to both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. I wanted to put a little lighthearted scene in the middle of all of this drama just because I thought it would be funny and I needed to lighten up the mood a little.
> 
> In case you missed it, I update on **Fridays.**
> 
> Also, I just want to say thank you to everyone who left a comment. I really appreciate seeing what you guys think of my story, and I read every single one.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines discovers his mistake that he's been trying so hard to fix. Hopefully, it's not too late to correct it.

Nines braced himself outside the door to Ethan’s room. On the way to the hospital, he had created a plan for how best to talk to Gavin, taking in the recent circumstances, events, and advice that he had received. He pushed his shoulders back in an air of confidence. He was an android; creating plans and seeing them through to the end was what he was built to do.

Step 1: Confront Gavin.

That was easy enough. All he had to do was walk through the door in front of him. He would be calm, he would be patient, and most of all, he would be _understanding._ Of course, perseverance was key here. Reed’s temperament was an issue he had dealt with before, so if he was going to help Gavin ~~and his stubborn ass,~~ he couldn’t just let him push his issues aside. He reminded himself that this was all for Gavin’s benefit; as his partner and friend, it was Nines’ duty to help both Reed and Ethan get through this no matter what it took, even if that included dragging Gavin out by the ear into the hallway for an uncomfortable discussion about emotions.

His entire plan was thrown out the window, however, when he opened the door. Nines was met with the sight of one Gavin Reed, asleep on a hospital bed next to his nephew, his arm wrapped around Ethan protectively.

Nines’ LED turned yellow for a second before returning to normal, and he smirked. They both looked so… _peaceful._ That is, as peaceful as they could be, squished together on a twin size mattress. He watched for a moment as Gavin snored softly, and Ethan turned the tiniest bit into his body. Oddly enough, it was comforting for him to see them both resting. After the train wreck of a week they had been through, it was good to know they were finally recovering. It was exactly what Nines had come in the room to encourage them to do, and he wasn’t about to interrupt what was probably one of the best periods of sleep either of them had had in a while.

He crept closer to the bed, careful not to disturb either of them. Nines observed them for a moment, thoughts coming to his mind like a slow tide. He realized he was witnessing something he had never seen before, something that he could imagine but had never felt himself. As he looked at the two, so in sync, caring for each other, trusting each other to the point of extreme vulnerability with a bond so tightly woven he knew both would gladly die for the other, he finally understood what he had been missing all of this time.

It was the reason he could not understand why Gavin had felt so irrationally worried about Ethan, and why Ethan always thought the best of Gavin, even on his worse days. Why Gavin had barely slept until they had found him, all of the nicknames he had thrown out in reference to him rather than his actual name, despite Ethan being nearly 22. It was the reason Ethan always got Gavin his favorite kind of coffee that they didn’t have at the station, even if it meant being late to work himself. It was Gavin letting Ethan bring food in the car and choosing the music on the way to crime scenes, despite the extreme protectiveness of his vehicle. It was not getting upset when someone spilled coffee all over you. It was understanding the impact of someone’s experiences, even if you yourself hadn’t gone through them. It was putting your life on the line, risking it all, putting yourself between the path of a bullet and the person you love. It was _family._

Nines felt a strange longing growing deep inside him. He wondered briefly what it would feel like, knowing someone always had your back, always cared if you were okay. That wasn’t to say that he thought no one cared about him; he knew at least that his colleagues would question a sudden absence on his part. And yet, he felt a strong desire to be a part of something like what the pair in front of him had. To have people to care about. To have people to love. To have a _family._

He realized with a start that this was the first time he had truly _wanted_ something for himself. Before deviating, he had always felt he needed to complete his mission. Not because he wanted to, but because people were relying on him, expecting him to come through. Even now, his priority had never been about himself, always focusing on Gavin, or the next case, or what he could learn from his mistakes. Not once had he ever just wanted something, just for him; the funny thing was, the first thing he wanted was to share something with someone else. To hold someone close to him, protect someone, hell, someone he’d be willing to die for. He wanted to mean something to someone.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by Gavin shivering. He focused on Reed, who was still sleeping, just cold. While Ethan was surrounded by blankets and such, Gavin was on top of all those layers, and he was using his jacket as a makeshift pillow so that he could rest his head by Ethan’s. Without thinking, Nines slowly took off his own jacket and quietly laid it on top of Gavin, trying not to wake him up. He could always go get a new one from the station, anyway, as he had grabbed this one when he returned, knowing the other was basically ruined because of the bloodstain on it. There wasn’t a reason that he did it; he just did.

No. He _wanted_ to do it. For Gavin.

His efforts of being quiet only partly succeeded. While Gavin remained asleep, Ethan stirred and slowly opened his eyes, squinting. “Nines?” he said quietly.

Nines put his fingers to his lips and walked over to the other side of the bed, where Ethan could view him better without having to move much. “I thought Gavin said you left,” he whispered.

“Yes, I was called back into the DPD to file a case report,” he lied, so as not to lead Ethan to worry about the infiltration in the FBI.

“Really? They can’t make anyone else do it? That sucks.” His voice was groggy, but his words were sincere.

“Well, obviously Gavin was here with you, and Anderson and Connor are still investigating.” That one wasn’t necessarily a lie, though Nines didn’t know why he suddenly cared so much about telling Ethan the truth. “I just thought I’d come back and check in on you, see how the surgery went.” From what he saw, Ethan was probably still recovering from the anesthesia, so Nines wasn’t exactly sure how much of this conversation he would actually remember. 

“Oh. Well, I think it went well,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I’m still not very sure what they did except ‘fix me,’ but I guess that’s pretty typical when you don’t really speak doctor.” Nines was pretty sure it also had something to do with Ethan’s fatigued mind, but he didn’t say anything. “Plus, Gavin won’t explain it to me, either ‘cause he doesn’t want me to worry or he just also doesn’t understand,” he joked, winking at Nines.

Nines gave him a small smile. “Knowing Gavin, it’s probably both of those reasons,” he chuckled, glancing quickly at Gavin. “But you’re feeling better?”

Ethan nodded slightly. “Yeah, if not a little tired, like, all the time,” he said around a yawn.

“I also came to make sure that Gavin was...not in the process of killing himself via sleep deprivation, but I see now that that isn’t a problem I need to fix,” he said, smirking.

Ethan smiled, though it was clear he was exhausted from all the recent strain his body had been through. “Yeah, one little round of puppy eyes and a ‘please, Gavin, I’m worried about you,’ and he was up here just like that,” he said with a tiny glint in his eyes. Nines was caught a little off-guard by this. In the recent events, he had forgotten about Ethan’s mischievousness; he _was_ raised by Gavin, after all.

“I’ll let you rest, then.” When Ethan looked like he was about to protest, Nines continued. “Don’t worry, I’ll come back later if you like. Hank and Connor might be able to visit as well if that’s alright with you?”

Ethan yawned again, for longer this time. “Yeah, that’s fine.” As Nines turned to walk out, he called out quietly, “I’ll call you if Gavin does anything stupid while you’re gone.”

Once again, Nines smirked at the two of them and their bond as he exited the room. When he was just about to start walking down the hallway, a doctor bumped into him. In the split second collision, the man’s lab coat was pulled back, revealing a gun strapped to his side. “Whoops, sorry,” he said. He recognized the voice. Scanning his face, his sensors identified the man as Joshua Vallejo.

After a moment, Nines turned and began to follow him from a distance. While he would normally just take him out right now, he didn’t want to cause a panic in the middle of the hospital. Vallejo headed through the building and out the back way, towards the ambulances, where he stopped and just stood there, obviously waiting for something.

Nines hid behind a pillar when Vallejo received a phone call. When he picked it up, there was a moment of silence before he answered. “Yeah, no sweat. I’m right outside, don’t worry. Just tell me when you’ve got the prick.” Another moment of silence. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’ll be ready. Don’t take too long, though, ‘cause I might just fall asleep waiting on you guys to do your jobs. What I’m saying is you better grab the little fucker now before I leave all of you in the dust.”

Nines eyes widened in realization of what they were talking about.

_Ethan._

\----

Ethan shifted slightly, trying to fall back asleep. His movements accidentally stirred Gavin, who woke up next to him. He sat up slowly, carefully removing his arm from around Ethan’s injured ribs, and examined Nines’ jacket, which was still covering him. “What- was Nines here?” he asked Ethan upon seeing that he was still awake.

Ethan rubbed his eyes. “Mm, yeah. Said he wanted to check up on me or something. We didn’t want to wake you up, though. Sorry, I didn’t know if you wanted to talk to him, so I just let you sleep.”

“No, I just… I don’t know. Whatever.” He shrugged, turning his attention back to Ethan. “How are you, kid?” he said, ruffling his hair a little.

“Less painful, so there’s that. Still pretty tired.” He held back a yawn.

Their attention was turned towards the door opening. A man in a lab coat entered the room. “Hello,” he said. “I’m Dr. Mendez, from radiology. Dr. Martin’s ordered a follow-up, just to see how your leg is healing.”

Gavin stood up from the bed. “Really? Didn’t think it was possible to tell that soon.”

“Yes, well, in special cases like Mr. Reed’s, we like to know as soon as possible. Just to be safe,” he said, turning to Ethan.

“Kid barely got out of surgery a couple of hours ago.” Ethan thought he heard a hint of distrust in Gavin’s voice.

“While that might be the case, we just want to check for…” He paused, searching for the right word. “Complications that might’ve occurred during or after the operation.”

“You mean like pain, right?” he said.

“Well, yes, but-”

Gavin turned to Ethan. “You in any pain?”

Ethan was confused at Gavin’s sudden mood change. Why was Gavin so suspicious of this guy? It looked like he was just trying to do his job. He shook his head no slowly.

“See that? He’s perfectly fine.”

“Oh, um,” the man stammered. “I’m sorry, I might be in the wrong room. This is your room, yes?” he asked, showing Gavin his clipboard. As soon as Gavin leaned in to see, the man swung his arm out and punched him in the nose.

The force of the hit caused Gavin to spin around, and he knocked into the bedside table which stopped the momentum of his fall. “Gavin!” Ethan sat up, leaning over the edge of the bed to get a better view of what had happened.

As the man got closer to him, Gavin collected himself. He turned and tackled the man to the floor, the clipboard skidding away. Ethan leaned to see what was going on, but his leg made it hard for him to bend when it was elevated. From what he could tell, they were wrestling on the ground, struggling with one another to get the upper hand. He saw them roll over to the left of the bed and closer to the wall, with Gavin on top. His advantage didn’t last for long. The “doctor” kicked him in the gut and then slammed him up against the wall. Ethan watched in horror as he picked Gavin up by the shirt collar.

“So,” the man growled in his face. “Are we gonna have to do this the easy way, or the fun way?”

Gavin spat. “Take a fuckin’ guess,” he said as he grabbed onto the wrists that were holding him in the air and kicked off the wall, bending inward. He kicked the man off of him, and they both fell to the floor and got up just as quickly.

They ran at toward one another and grabbed each other by the shoulders. There was a flurry of kneeing, weight shifting, and twisting before Gavin managed to pin his opponent up against the wall. It was Gavin’s turn to punch him in the gut, and despite the size difference, he grabbed the man by the throat.

Just as Ethan thought Gavin was going to win, Gavin suddenly flinched and grabbed at his back, releasing the man from his grip. He spun around for a moment trying to reach something. Ethan shifted his gaze to the doorway, where he saw a woman standing, pointing a gun at Gavin. It looked like she had just shot him, but he hadn’t heard it go off and he couldn’t see any sort of silencer on it. He looked back at Gavin, who stumbled and grabbed onto the edge of the hospital bed.

“What- Gavin!” Ethan called out again. He saw Gavin try to pull himself up, but the man kicked the back of his knees and he crumpled to the floor with a thud. He tried to push himself up on his hands and knees, but his movements were slower. The man simply kicked him on the side of his face, and he went back down, rolling over.

“Ethan… no,” he groaned, before going completely limp.

At this point he couldn’t sit there any longer, broken leg be damned. Ethan ripped off the sheets covering his body and swung off the bed, bracing himself. He stumbled towards Gavin, taking a step closer before falling to his knees. If it hurt his leg, he didn’t notice. He didn’t care if he had fractured ribs or if he was still malnourished and weak or whatever. He had to get to Gavin.

Ethan gripped Gavin’s shoulders, shaking him in an attempt to get him back up. “Gavin! Gavin, please,” he said, starting to panic. “C’mon, wake up! Wake up!”

He heard the two people speaking behind him as more came in the room.

“I thought I told you I could handle it,” the man said, agitated.

“Was that before or after you were about to be strangled?” she retorted.

“What did you do to him?” Ethan yelled. He turned back to Gavin, rolling his body over so that he could see his back to check for whatever the woman had shot him with. The only thing he found was a tiny dart beneath his shoulder blade, which he immediately ripped out. He turned Gavin back over, shaking his shoulders again. “Gavin, wake up! Please, just wake up!” He received no response, Gavin’s head lolling to the side, unconscious.

What did they do to him? What did they-

“Someone, please! I need help!” he shouted as loudly as he could, hoping someone out in the hallway would hear him. “Please, I-”

He was cut off by a hand coming down over his mouth. He struggled to get away as he was grabbed and lifted into the air. They dropped him down on top of the bed. Ethan looked over and saw that they were dragging Gavin to the side and tying his wrists behind him, leaning him up against the wall. He tried to fight them off, get up and get back to Gavin, but they kept shoving him down and even his constant squirming couldn’t stop them from pinning his arms and legs down. His ribs ached and his chest was hurting even more. They managed to tie him down to the bed, and now he couldn’t move, much less get away.

He started to call out as one of them approached him with a needle. “Please, somebody! Anyone!”

“Oh my fucking god, just shut him up already!” one of them groaned. Ethan shifted, trying in vain to pull away as the man with the needle grabbed his arm. He could do nothing to stop him as the syringe was inserted into his arm and whatever the fuck was in there entered his bloodstream.

Once the man pulled away, Ethan continued to struggle, but it was taking much more of his energy. He was panicking. It was happening again. They were going to take him back there and tie him up, force him to play whatever sick game they had created. He couldn’t get away, and now Gavin couldn’t even fucking save him. For all he knew, Gavin was dead or dying.

Everything was heavy, and it was getting harder to move. He felt a tear roll down his cheek as his eyelids turned into slits. Just before they closed completely, he heard a loud bang as the door was kicked down and a blurry figure in black appeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Here's a chapter a couple of days early. I was kind of bored and I have no self-control. Really excited that we're getting closer to the end of this story!
> 
> By the way, I typically update on **Fridays;** that is, if I can actually listen to my schedule. In case you're wondering, the next chapter will be uploaded on the **28th.** Also, I always appreciate seeing what you guys have to say about the story.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines makes a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, fair warning: when I showed this chapter to my friends it made them cry, so... read at your own risk, I guess?

Connor scanned the streets ahead of them. They had followed the trail of tainted paint downtown, in areas of Detroit where graffiti was most common. It was a smart tactic, hiding messages in plain sight, letting time and other artists cover up for you. So far they had found a few messages with arrows pointing in the direction of the next one. Some were nearby, some were farther along the road, some even pointed in the opposite direction they had just come in. From what Connor could tell, they were strewn around the city like a spider web; a map of sorts, all pointing to the center of Detroit.

They were sitting in the car, Connor sticking his head out the window looking for more secret messages while Hank drove using the directions that Connor gave him. It was sort of precarious; sometimes Connor would call out turns a little late and Hank would jerk the car around, almost throwing him out of the moving vehicle in the process.

“Wait! Stop here!” Connor said suddenly. He managed to save himself before his head hit the dashboard.

“What? What is it?” Hank asked.

Connor pointed out the window. “There is a large number of footsteps covered in the paint, leading up to that building,” he said, gesturing to an old apartment. “Maybe whoever has been leaving the messages lives around here?”

“Bet you money that’s our guy,” Hank said, getting out of the car. “C’mon, we’re checking it out.”

Connor quickly followed him. He scanned the buzzer, looking for Peterson’s name. He pointed at number six. The partners shrugged at each other, and Hank pushed the button.

“Hello?” came a voice that sounded hesitant.

“Is this James Peterson?” Connor asked.

“Uh, who wants to know?” he stammered.

“We’re with the Detroit Police. We just want to ask him some questions.”

They didn’t receive a response. A second later, they saw a man jump out of the first-floor window and start sprinting away from the building. They exchanged a quick glance before chasing after him.

The man ran across the street and jumped over a metal gate that marked where an old park used to be. Connor had no problem following, vaulting over the gate easily, but he knew Hank would be slower. He would just have to trust that he would catch up to them later. He ran through the dead grass and slowly was gaining on him before the man ran across another street and turned into an alley.

He was panicking, Connor could tell; he had just cornered himself. He followed him, slowing down at the entrance. He looked around, but the man had just disappeared.

Connor’s LED turned yellow again. This wasn’t possible. How were all of these people just getting awa-

There was a clash of metal as he was tackled from the side. He struggled with the man on top of him, who was pointing a knife closer and closer to his chest, right above his thirium pump. The blade inched closer, now poking at his synthetic skin as Connor strained to keep it away.

Suddenly, the man was shoved off of him, and Hank was pointing a gun at the back of the criminal’s head, who was pinned against the wall. Connor got up as quickly as he could and handed Hank a set of cuffs.

“Alright, dipshit. You,” Hank said, slamming the cuffs on his wrists, “are under arrest for assaulting an officer.” The man grunted. “And suspected of aiding in an abduction. Now, what you’re gonna do,” he growled, leaning in close, “is tell us where your little buddies are, and what the fuck you think you’re trying to do with this android bullshit.”

“It ain’t bullshit,” the man spat indignantly. “And I didn’t do shit. Never laid a fuckin’ finger on that rookie, and you can’t prove nothing.”

“I never said who it was, you fuckin’ idiot.” Hank slammed his face into the brick. “And why don’t you tell that to the guy you fuckfaces put in the hospital? Or how about my partner here, who has video fucking evidence of you on that boat, _Peterson?”_

His eyes widened despite his face being pressed up against the wall. He made a noise that sounded a lot like “phck.”

“I’m only gonna ask nicely one more time. Spit it out; what are you planning, and the fuck does it have to do with killing some rookie cop? Just another name on your hitlist, or is there something going down?” The man didn’t say anything. “Better open your mouth now, unless you want to lose a couple teeth.” He jabbed his gun into Peterson’s neck again.

“L-look, we weren’t gonna kill him,” he stammered out, sweating. “Yates just thought it would be nice to have a little fun with him, is all.”

“Yeah? What were you gonna do after having ‘fun?’ Throw his body in the river? Oh, how about nailing him to a billboard?”

He whimpered pathetically. “N-no! I swear, we weren’t gonna kill the little-” He was cut off by Hank cocking the gun threateningly. “W-wait! Wait! Okay, okay, I’ll talk,” he finally gave in. “Seriously, we weren’t gonna kill him.”

“Why should I believe that?” Hank growled. “You had no problem with murdering those other innocent people. What makes him any different?”

“Because!” He gasped. “Because we need him. He’s too important to us.”

“And why’s that?” Hank pushed.

“He’s our only shot,” he said quickly. “He’s our only chance at not dying out.”

Hank rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever the fuck that means. Hate to break it to you, bud, but it looks like you fuckers just earned yourselves an early grave. You aren’t getting an inch closer to him. He’s safe, out of reach from your grimy hands.”

This time, the man scoffed surprisingly. “What makes you so sure?”

The partners exchanged a glance. “What?” Connor asked.

“We wouldn’t just let him go,” he said, chuckling. He tensed when Hank dug the gun further into his skin. “What makes you think he isn’t exactly where we want him?”

They both sucked in a breath. “Connor, call Reed,” Hank said.

He nodded. They all waited, tense, as Connor dialed his phone number. The call rang out for a minute before Connor was sent to voicemail. “Well?” Hank asked.

He shook his head. “No response.”

The man cackled. “What I say?” That earned him another head slam into the wall from Hank.

His eyes widened in realization.

“Shit.”

\----

Nines didn’t know what he had expected to find. What he saw wasn’t the worst case scenario; that one was saved for if he just found both Ethan and Gavin dead. But seeing Ethan restrained to a bed and Gavin nowhere to be found was still slightly unnerving to the android.

He pointed his gun at the man standing over Ethan with a needle in his hand. “Step away from him,” he commanded.

This caused one of them to laugh. “You’re in no position to be ordering us around,” he said, pulling out a gun. “You say a word to your friends at the police department, I’ll put a bullet through his head.” He pointed the gun at Ethan.

Nines’ LED flickered red, then yellow. “No, you won’t,” he said. “You need him for something. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

“Oh wow. Piece of plastic’s smarter than I thought.” The guy smirked. “Never said I needed him alive, though.” Nines tensed at this. “But, orders are orders, so…” He shrugged and lowered the gun, but Nines noted that he didn’t put it away. “You might wanna step away from the door. We don’t want anyone listening in to our conversation, do we?” he said, heavily throwing out the implied threat with a smile.

Nines considered it. There was a chance that through the opened door behind him a nurse or someone might call the police, and that would most likely get that person shot. If he turned to help them, he knew that they would continue to do whatever it was they were doing to Ethan. He couldn’t allow that to happen. Slowly, he closed the door behind him with one hand, making sure not to turn away from them or lower his gun.

“Good robot,” the man snickered.

“What did you do to him?” Nines asked gruffly, nodding at Ethan. From what he could tell, they had given him something, because although he was restrained, he wasn’t fighting back. He needed to know in order to better assess his next steps. Ethan was his priority; his safety was Nines’ main issue right now.

“Nothing, just a sedative. He wouldn’t shut up, and we’d prefer to do this as quiet as possible.” Nines took a step forward. “Not so fast, tin can. Things like this, they can get so… messy. I think it would be best if you just sat back and let us do our work. Or rather, my colleagues’. I’m just the cleanup crew,” he said, but he sounded like he was bragging. How many of these people were there?

“And what would that be?” he challenged, not backing down.

“Oh, it’s just a little drug-induced coma. Don’t worry, we’ll get him out of it as soon as we arrive.”

“That’s not going to happen.” He started forward again.

“Not another step,” the man said, raising the gun again.

“Or you’ll what?”

The man nodded at two of them, and they went over to the bathroom, dragging something out with them. Nines’ eyes widened when he saw Gavin, beaten and bloody with his hands tied behind his back and a gag over his mouth. He was unconscious and looked extremely weak as the men held him by his shoulders and positioned him so that he was sitting on his knees.

“Y’know, originally we were just going to leave him tied up in the bathroom for somebody else to find,” the man said, walking over to him. “But now I think he could actually be somewhat useful to us.” He pointed the gun at Gavin’s head. “So, what’s it gonna be? This prick,” he said, shoving Gavin’s head to the side with his gun, “or some dumbass rookie cop?” He smirked when he saw Nines’ expression. “One bullet; that’s all it takes to end a life. Better hurry up and make your decision before I make it for you.” He smiled menacingly. “I’d recommend the smart choice.”

He was silent. Nines considered his options: save Gavin and probably let them put Ethan into a coma, or save Ethan and Gavin gets shot. Simply leaving the room, what the man in front of him was implying was the “smart” choice, was not going to happen, though he wasn’t sure how he should continue. From the angle the gun was pointed at his skull at point-blank range, he calculated that Gavin had a 99% chance of dying. Saving Ethan would require more time, too; he was surrounded by people, all probably trained in some form of combat, and he would have to free him from the restraints. Even if he made his choice, either outcome had a low chance of success. There was a third option, however; he could-

Gavin groaned and shook his head. After a moment of trying to wake himself up, he realized that he was being held back. He made a weak attempt to pull out of the grip the people had on his arms, but they were too strong for him. He raised his head up, fatigue and anger plastered on his face, but his eyes widened when he saw Nines in front of him. He tried to say something to him, but the combination of whatever they had done to him and the gag made it inaudible, although Nines could guess what he was saying.

“Well, look who’s up.” Reed whipped his head around, and it took a second before his eyes focused enough on the person pointing a gun in his face. “Nice of you to join us. Your partner here was just about to make a very important choice. Which reminds me,” he said, turning back to Nines, “the clock is ticking. Time to decide who you value more: your partner or his little brat. You could always just walk out now, let us finish our job, and we won’t do anything too bad to this idiot,” he said, jabbing the gun at Gavin again. “Or, if you want to do it the fun way, go ahead. Try to save the kid. All it’ll earn this prick is a faceful of lead.”

Gavin tried to turn his head to see what was happening to Ethan, but he was held back. He struggled once more, trying to say something, most likely insults that were meant to be thrown around the room. He stopped when one of them smacked him in the head, and he wobbled a bit before sinking back down to his knees.

Nines thought that they had knocked him back into unconsciousness before he mumbled out something incoherent.

“I’m curious, Detective Reed. What do you think he should do?” the man said, ripping off the gag.

Gavin shook his head again, the sudden force making him dizzy. “Nines,” he mumbled quietly, slowly trying to turn his head up to look at his partner. He was sweating now. Whatever they had given him, it wasn’t just a sedative, not like they had done to Ethan.

“Gavin… I’m sorry,” Nines said, unable to think of anything else. If he hadn’t left him, then the criminals never would have gotten this far. He never would’ve let this happen.

After a moment, Gavin spoke up. “Don’t,” he said, almost choking on the word. He finally met Nines’ eyes. “The….…. the kid,” he rasped, doing his best to keep his head up, but Nines could tell he was struggling. Gavin let it drop, unable to find the strength to keep looking at him. “You…...you save...my kid.” His head lolled to the side, and his body went limp as he collapsed in the mens’ grip.

“Well, you heard him. Better hurry, tin can, or I’ll just do it myself. So, what’s it gonna be?”

Nines looked between Ethan and Gavin. The only thing he could think to do was stall for time, look for a good opening to make his play. “You want to know something funny?” he scoffed. “When I first met him, I knew he’d be difficult. He was always angry, always so arrogant about everything. He acted like he had an issue with the world for simply existing. I could never understand why he was like this, why humanity had produced such an… oddity. The only way I could interact with him was cold; anything else would earn some sort of scorn. Of course, it didn’t bother me. I didn’t need to care what some hot-headed detective thought of me. Reed…” he sighed, “was never one for sentiment, unless that sentiment was anger. So you can imagine my surprise when I finally saw him laugh, react without some sort of smoke coming out of his ears when something went wrong.

“When Ethan came, I… I didn’t understand. I honestly didn’t think Reed was capable of letting go of grudges. It intrigued me, this thing that I couldn’t recognize. I kept trying to analyze it, find something that would explain his newfound behavior. I guess I had spent too much time knowing him as some sort of loose cannon, I hadn’t stopped to think that he was more than that. But, over time, something within me… changed. You probably think that’s impossible. How could an android ever consider someone like him so worth it?” That statement seemed to anger the man in front of him, but he kept going. He needed to say this while he still could, in case he didn’t get the chance to later. “Believe it or not, he had something to teach me.” He glanced at Ethan. “They both did… Because in all of CyberLife’s databases, all of their extensive research on AI, they still managed to leave something out when building us. Maybe it was intentional, maybe it wasn’t, but I think every deviant eventually learns what it means one way or another. One last lesson for the world and **all** of its inhabitants to share.”

“Yeah? And what’s that? Didn’t think us dumb humans fuckin’ mattered to pricks like you,” the man scoffed.

He took a deep breath in. “It’s family. In my short time here, I found it to be one of the strongest bonds on this tiny little planet. It can be anyone, blood-related or not, but what you have with family is tougher than steel and stronger than diamonds.” He smirked almost microscopically, images flashing through his processor of the little moments between Ethan and Gavin, random people on the street, just humans being human. “You choose your family, and you always know who they are, because they’re the people that without a shadow of a doubt you know you’d die for in an instant. _That’s_ what some advanced android had to learn from a couple of dumb humans.”

“Well, that’s really warming up my cold, dead heart, but nice words won’t get you anywhere. I don’t give a shit about what you think you feel. I just wanna know what that braindead software of yours thinks is more important.” He cocked the gun and once again pointed it at Gavin, who they had let drop back down on the floor at that point, now shivering in his sleep. “So choose. Now.”

“I can tell you’re not one for speeches, so I’ll cut this short.” Nines sighed. “I guess what I’m trying to say is until recently I didn’t realize how important a family could be. I’m just sorry that I couldn’t be there more for mine.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to-” He was about to finish his sentence, but Nines had already made his choice. He ran and leaped at the man, determined to do whatever it took to save them both. To save his family.

They wrestled on the floor. A gunshot rang out, but if it hit Nines, he didn’t notice. He knew his priority; in that moment nothing else mattered.

They were still struggling when the door was kicked down.

“Detroit Police! Freeze!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you missed it, I update the stories on **Fridays.**
> 
> Also, I love hearing what you guys think of the story so far and thank you to everyone who commented on the earlier chapters. It really means a lot to me!


	14. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An epilogue to the story. Nines watches over his family, Ethan harbors the guilt of sacrifice, and Gavin is...well, Gavin is Gavin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Oh my gosh, I only just now realized 1k people have read Lifeline! That is absolutely amazing to me; 1,000 people couldn't even fit in my house. I want to do something special to celebrate. [This link](https://forms.gle/k9w9QvctoyjeXK398) will take you to a google form where you can submit drawings that you'd like to see drawn to life by me and my sister. I'd really like to know which scenes were your guys' favorites!

“Detroit Police! Freeze!”

Everything stopped. All of the frantic fighting, the panicked motions, the rush of adrenaline that filled the room, it all disappeared in an instant as what seemed like the entire DPD filled the tiny hospital room. Everything stopped, except for Nines, who grappled the gun away from the man and immediately knocked him unconscious.

He pushed through the forest of officers, searching for Gavin, who was lying on the floor. It was almost ironic; he was in a position all too similar to Ethan’s when he had been shot on the boat. This time, though, there wasn’t a pool of blood.

He checked his partner, who was still shivering despite the sweat that was covering his body. He untied his hands and rolled him onto his back. Nines assessed his vitals, only to find that Gavin had developed an intense fever. His pupils were pinpricks, and he looked barely conscious. His breathing was shallow and fast, and his skin had taken on a yellow pallor. They hadn’t just tranqed him; Gavin had been poisoned, and it was rapidly spreading throughout his body.

He picked him up and tried to ignore the way his arm hung limply to the side. Nines maneuvered through the crowd and finally reached the open doorway, which was now surrounded by curious and scared doctors. Upon seeing Gavin in his arms, though, they jumped into action. Almost immediately, Gavin was lifted onto a gurney, and Nines was being interrogated as they sped to the ICU.

“What happened?” a doctor asked him seriously.

“I found him like that. He was only conscious for a minute or so after,” Nines said. “I think he’s been poisoned.”

“He’s struggling to breathe,” another said. “We need to intubate, now.”

They were still moving him when Nines felt Gavin put a hand on his arm. He turned his attention back to his partner, who seemed to have gotten a tiny burst in strength. “Ethan…” he mumbled.

“Ethan is safe, Gavin. He’s alright,” Nines reassured him.

“...good,” he said before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his whole body started to convulse.

\----

Ethan woke up, once again groggy. He rubbed his eyes, trying to remember what had happened. “Wha-” he said, as the memories came to him in a flash.

“Gavin!” he whipped his head around, looking for him, but Gavin was nowhere to be found. He didn’t know what they had done with him. He was terrified that they had hurt him, or worse, killed him. Ethan needed to find him, fast. He didn’t care if he had a million machines attached to him, or if IV’s were the only thing keeping him stable. He tore off the sheets, tore off the wires that covered his limbs and ignored the loud scream that came from the pulse machine. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and slowly lifted himself down. He gripped the side of the bed and stumbled, but he regained his balance and kept going. He just had to get used to walking again; it had been a few days since he was on his feet.

Another step forward, though, and his legs buckled underneath him. Ethan fell to the floor with a thud, which caused the people standing guard outside the room to come in and see what all the noise was about. Hank and Connor found him slowly pushing himself up on the floor, trying to get up in vain as he lacked the upper body strength he needed to get off of the floor.

“Whoa, there,” Hank said. Ethan felt two pairs of hands carefully grab under his arms and torso and lift him up so that he was once again sitting on the edge of the bed. “Ethan, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“I need to-” He tried to slide off the bed again, but the moment his feet hit the floor he stumbled into Connor’s arms. “I need to find Gavin,” he said, trying to move around Connor. It felt like the whole room was spinning, and Connor had no problem blocking him from taking another step forward.

“What you need is to sit your ass back down in that bed,” Hank said.

Connor began to gently push him onto the mattress, but Ethan gripped his shoulders as tightly as he could to prevent him from making him lie back down. “Ethan, please just go back to bed,” Connor said, struggling to keep him down without hurting him. “It’s for your own good.”

“No,” he grunted, now sweating with the effort of trying to fight Connor off. “Not until I find Gavin.” The two partners exchanged a look. “Where is he?”

He didn’t receive a response. “Where is he? Where’s Gavin?” he asked again, his voice rising. Connor finally managed to push him down onto his back, but Ethan didn’t let go of his shoulder. “Where is he? Why won’t you tell me?”

Hank sighed. “Reed, he…” he trailed off.

“Is there a problem here?” a doctor asked from the doorway, having heard the steady beep of the unconnected pulse machine. Ethan didn’t look at her, though; he kept looking into Connor’s eyes, silently pleading with him.

Connor’s LED flashed yellow for a second before the pulse machine stopped and he turned to look at her. “No, everything is fine. I’m sorry if we made you think he was going into cardiac arrest.”

She looked a little suspicious, but apparently the gruffness of Hank’s appearance and Connor’s ability to keep a straight, serious face while lying convinced her to leave them be for the moment. “Okay...but if he displays any signs of discomfort-”

“-Yes, we know,” Connor said, interrupting her.

Ethan listened as her footsteps slowly faded from the room before turning back to Connor. “Please,” he said, trying to show them he had calmed down. “Just let me see him. What happened?”

After a moment, Hank sighed again and put his hand on Connor’s shoulder. “Connor, go get a wheelchair. Guy can’t walk on his own.”

Connor looked surprised for a moment, but he got up from his position of leaning over Ethan’s bed and walked out of the room in search of what Hank had asked.

“Thank you,” Ethan said, sitting himself back up.

Hank scoffed. “You and Reed, you’re like fuckin’ birds of a feather.”

They were both silent. Finally, Ethan spoke up. “Hank, what happened?”

He waited a second before answering. “Look, Ethan. What we’re taking you to see, it ain’t pretty. He went into anaphylactic shock, and they had to intubate him, but they said he’ll be fine in a couple of days.”

“Wait, what? What’d they do to him?” Ethan thought Gavin had just been knocked out.

“Reed was poisoned, but he’s fine, alright? He’s lucky that he was already in a hospital when it happened, ‘cause they said that it was the kind that acted quickly. Fortunately for him, it passes quick, too.”

Connor reentered the room. With help from him and Hank, Ethan got into the chair and they took him to where Gavin was being treated.

Ethan’s eyes widened when he realized where they were going. “He’s in the ICU?” he asked, turning to look at Connor who was behind him, pushing the chair.

“It’s the best place they can keep him stable,” Connor said calmly.

“But I thought you said he was fine.” He hadn’t realized it was this bad, despite Hank’s warning. There was a small, stupid part of him that had been holding out hope that Gavin was completely fine, and not about to die at any minute.

“Relax. It just takes some time for the stuff to be eliminated from his system,” Hank tried to explain. “I don’t know. If you have questions, ask a doctor or something.”

“Actually, lieutenant, I believe I can help explain it to him. When the poison entered Reed’s system, it caused all muscular function to shut down, which includes the respiratory organs. They needed to put him in intensive care because he couldn’t breathe on his own, as well as to monitor and treat the fever that he had developed,” Connor said, looking at his partner. Hank must have given him some sort of signal to shut up because Connor corrected himself. “Uh, of course, it would be best to hear it from a professional who can go...further...into...detail.” He became uncomfortable, most likely realizing that they all knew that as a walking source of information, he was probably the best equipped to explain this to Ethan.

In all honesty, though, hearing that from a professional probably would’ve made him feel even worse than he was now, hearing it from Connor. He was about to ask Connor to continue when they stopped in front of a door. “This is it,” Hank said as they entered.

What Ethan saw horrified him. Gavin was lying on a bed, pale and unconscious. He had an IV stuck in his arm, and he just looked sick all over, but what disturbed Ethan the most was seeing a tube stuck down his throat because he couldn’t breathe on his own. He wasn’t moving at all, and if Ethan didn’t know better he would’ve thought that he was dead.

He wheeled himself over to the bed, ignoring the pain that spiked in his arm from the strain of turning the wheels.

“We’ll leave you two be for a minute,” Hank said, pulling Connor out of the room with him and closing the door behind them. Ethan didn’t doubt that they were waiting right outside.

He put his good hand on Gavin’s arm, hoping, _wishing_ that he would react to the touch, but if Gavin felt anything he made no effort to show it. His skin was hot and sticky with sweat, but Ethan didn’t care. He kept his hand there because he felt like if he let go then he’d lose Gavin forever.

He wanted more than anything that none of this had ever happened, that it was all a dream or some figment of his imagination. He wished that he hadn’t been so fucking stupid, that he’d called the station at his house instead of going in alone, that he had taken the time to think things through and not let himself get kidnapped. If he had actual brain cells then none of this shit would have happened, and Gavin wouldn’t have almost died trying to protect him. He just wanted Gavin to wake up.

He couldn’t do this, he wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t okay enough to do this alone. He felt like a little kid again. How did people get through this? How did Gavin do it for him? He had always thought that once he was older he’d know how to deal with things better, be smarter about this stuff, free from all of the insecurity of his stupid teenage life.

He scoffed at himself as a tear rolled down his face. He was clueless, helpless, fucking powerless to do anything but watch as people continuously got hurt protecting him. There wasn’t anything about him worth dying for. He was just some disfigured shell of a human, some sort of ratty old ragdoll that should’ve been thrown out a long time ago. It should’ve been him that was poisoned. He should’ve died on that boat, he should’ve been smarter. It should’ve been him that bled out in that car. _It should’ve been him._

“Gavin, I-” he choked. He couldn’t take it anymore. Hot tears rolled down his face, but Ethan didn’t care. He gasped for breath, heaving, and broke down at Gavin’s side. “I- I’m sorry,” he sobbed. “I can’t- I can’t… _do_ this…”

He felt a hand on his shoulder. For one desperate moment, he thought it was Gavin, but when he looked up he was met with a too-perfect face wearing a concerned expression.

“N-Nines?” he said, his voice shaking uncontrollably.

“You should be in bed, Ethan,” Nines said, almost like he was a concerned mother scolding him for being out in the cold without a jacket. His sleeve was rolled up, revealing a bandaged arm; Ethan might’ve chuckled at his hypocrisy in another life. Now, though, seeing that Nines had been shot only added to his growing guilt.

He tried his best to wipe away the tears trailing down his face. “No. I...I needed to see him. I had to…” He trailed off. “It’s my fault.”

Nines crouched down so that he could be eye level with him. “That’s not true, Ethan, and you need to be resting. You are still recovering. Killing yourself by being here won’t help Gavin.”

Ethan knew he was right, but he couldn’t bring himself to admit it. He shook his head. “Please, Nines. I want to be here with him.”

Nines considered it. Finally, he sighed. “Against my better judgment, I suppose...you can stay.” Ethan’s eyes lit up a little. “But only for tonight. You both need to rest, and I’m not letting you strain your body like this again. There was a reason you had IVs, remember?”

He knew Nines would probably stay true to his word, but it meant a lot that he wasn’t calling a doctor in to take him back to his room. “Thank you,” he mumbled, turning back to Gavin.

“Tomorrow, you’re going back to bedrest,” he said, making it clear he would not be so lenient next time. Ethan only nodded in response. Nines watched as Ethan settled in, and continued watching as he fell asleep next to Gavin. He decided that he would take Ethan back to his room in a couple of minutes, but for now, he would let him have his moment.

\----

“You wanna tell me why your entire operation fucking failed?” their boss asked.

Beside her, Yates shifted uncomfortably. “It’s not our fault. You said bring the guy in, and that’s what we were trying to do. We just figured you wanted the same procedure as always.”

“You fuckin’ idiot! Did you even know who you were dealing with?” he yelled.

“It’s not like we killed him or anything. We were just following your orders, sir,” Vallejo finally spoke up.

“Then why,” he said, waving around a gun, “is he not here?” It was clear his anger was rising. “In fact, why did he end up in the hospital? Why was I forced to send in West, who is actually _competent,_ to do the job for you?”

She was about to point out that West, being as competent as he was, still got arrested, but Yates spoke first. “We thought…” Yates sucked in a breath. “We thought that we could get his little hound dogs off our trail. We thought if we just,” he gulped when a gun was pointed at him. “If we just sent a couple of messages, they’d stay away. We didn’t think they’d use the threats to-”

“The what?” he almost screamed.

“The...the threats,” Yates said, quieter now.

“You _threatened_ him?” he yelled.

“It wasn’t gonna kill him! It was just a knife in the arm, I swe-”

A gunshot rang out. Yates crumpled to his knees, his forehead bleeding from a bullet hole in its center. He lowered the gun.

“If any of you _ever,”_ he growled, “and I mean _ever_ hurt him again, you’re gonna have to answer to me. You bring him in unharmed, whatever it takes." Ha paused and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, new plan. Vallejo.” Vallejo tensed beside her. “I’m putting you in charge. Don’t screw this up. I don’t enjoy giving idiots the leadership role, but we are unfortunately short staffed, as you know.” He leaned in closer to them, and she could feel his hot breath on her face.

“I see so much as a paper cut on him, you’re gonna wish you were Yates right now, ‘cause I don’t give a shit what happens to you as long as you do your fuckin’ jobs or you die trying. You bring him back to me, _alive._ You bring me back my son.”

\----

He opened his eyes slowly. Everything felt weird as if the world around him was going in slow motion but he was moving at lightning speed. He turned his head to try and look around, and the room lurched further than he had intended to see.

He lifted himself up or, at least, he tried to.

“Oh, you’re awake,” someone else in the room noted. The voice sort of echoed in his head. He covered his ears, trying to clear the ringing. “I apologize,” it said in almost a whisper. “I didn’t realize I was being so loud.”

The volume difference definitely felt better on his ears, so he lowered his hands. He saw someone moving in his periphery, though it took a second to focus on who it was. He squinted.

“Nines?” he grunted.

“Hello, Gavin.” It might’ve just been his blurry vision, but he could’ve sworn Nines was... _smiling_ at him.

“Ugh, what happened?” he asked, noticing the IV stuck in his arm.

“You were poisoned trying to defend Ethan.” He sat up immediately. “Ethan is fine, Gavin. Connor is making sure he stays in bed, and Anderson is guarding the room.”

He relaxed a little. “What’s with your arm?” he said, nodding slightly at Nines’ bandaged shoulder.

“It’s fine. Just a bullet, but nothing beyond a mechanic’s repair.”

Gavin sat in silence for a moment. “Did you...did I..." He sucked in a breath. "What did you choose?” he said, trying to remember what had happened.

Nines gave him a slightly surprised look. “I don’t negotiate with criminals, Reed.” Gavin looked down, a tiny bit of embarrassment creeping up his skin. Nines sighed. “But if you really want an answer, then I suppose...I chose both of you.”

Gavin met his eyes, curiosity glowing within them. “My preconstruction module presented me with three viable options: save Ethan and you would get shot, walk out and you wouldn’t, but they would put Ethan into a coma, or,” he paused, letting out a breath, “take the bullet for you.” 

Quiet stretched between them as he realized what that meant. “You should know, Gavin, that I prioritize you and Ethan over the safety of anyone else, myself included.” He sighed again. “Which is why you should know that some of the people that we arrested on the boat escaped on the way to their court hearings. We haven’t found them yet, but the FBI is currently searching for them. I’m sorry.”

A question lingered on the tip of his tongue. “Why?”

He tilted his head in confusion. “Why what?”

“Why do you...prioritize me, or whatever?”

Nines chuckled. “I guess you have left a lasting impact on me.”

\----

About a week later, and they had discharged Gavin from the hospital. That didn’t mean that he had left the building, though. For the most part, he stayed by Ethan’s side, except for when Nines physically forced him to go home. During the time that Ethan was recovering, Nines enjoyed visiting with the two of them. He liked to humor Ethan when Gavin brought over some of their things from their apartment, and he showed him his extensive collection of comics. Although he was almost 22- in fact, his birthday was coming up soon- Nines could see that he valued these little things from his childhood which he would probably never admit to his colleagues under normal circumstances. He had blushed a little when Gavin had returned from their home with an entire stack of graphic novels. Nines reassured him that as an android, he would not have a bad opinion of him for liking certain things, which encouraged Ethan to show him one of his favorites.

“So, this one here, that’s Riri Williams, or Ironheart. She’s basically this super genius, kinda like Tony Stark. She built her own Iron Man armor and I’m very gay for her,” he gushed, pointing at one of the panels. Nines leaned in closer from sitting on the edge of the bed to see better.

“I didn’t know you enjoyed superheroes this much,” he said.

Ethan blushed harder. “Yeah, it’s sort of embarrassing…”

Gavin smirked from where he was sitting in one of the hospital chairs. “Rat’s been into them for the longest time. He came out of the womb reading Spider-Man and all that.” He rolled his eyes playfully.

Ethan looked at him. “Oh, don’t act like you’re not obsessed with them, too.” He turned back to Nines. “He always cries when we watch Avengers: Endgame,” he said, pointing at Gavin.

Now Gavin was blushing, too. “Hey, it was very emotional!” he said indignantly.

“It’s during the part when all the female superheroes help Peter Parker.”

“Jeez, kid. Why you gotta call me out like this?” Gavin’s entire face had gone red at this point.

“Really, Reed?” Nines said, raising an eyebrow. “Do you have a favorite?”

Gavin started to stammer. “Well- I mean, they’re all okay...I, uh- I don’t think-”

“It’s Captain Marvel,” Ethan said, having no problem telling Nines himself. “He really likes Carol Danvers. He made me watch it with him.”

“Hey, I’m an equal opportunity kind of guy,” he defended himself. After a moment, he also mumbled, “Plus Goose is kinda cute.”

“Actually, Gavin’s the one who got me into all this stuff. When I was in the hospital, after- um, y’know- he gave me a copy of one of the first Iron Man comics,” Ethan said, clearly remembering it fondly. “Do we still have that one?” he asked.

“Yeah, I brought it,” Gavin said, trying to stop blushing by distracting himself. He searched around for it, finally pulling one out of the stack he had placed on a chair next to him. “Here it is,” he said, handing it to Ethan, who showed it to Nines.

He scanned the cover, which read “Iron Man: Extremis.” As Ethan opened the book, he caught a glimpse of a note written in permanent marker on the inside.

_“Hey, kid. I know you’re not feeling too great right now, but I want you to know that I’m right here to help. Once you feel up to it, go ahead and read about this guy. He’s super smart and strong, plus he’s got a scar on his chest, too. Sound like anyone you know?_

_Keep pushing. Love you, rat.  
-Uncle Gavin”_

He smiled when he saw this, but he didn’t say anything as Ethan continued to turn the pages and explain what was going on to him. Although Nines could simply look up the plots of any movie or novel, he allowed Ethan to tell him about the complicated storylines of the multiple intertwining universes in his wide range of comic books, with Gavin jumping in whenever he missed something.

Strangely, though, on the day before Ethan was going to be released from the hospital as well, which was about two and a half weeks later, Gavin was gone for a couple of hours, leaving Nines to stay with Ethan. He didn’t say anything to either of them other than he would be gone for a little while. When he came back, he simply said that he had been getting the apartment ready for Ethan’s return.

“It’s pretty much been a dump for weeks,” he had said.

They were on the drive home, with Nines taking them there at his own request, and for once Gavin had actually let him. Gavin turned to Ethan, who was taking up the entire backseat with his broken leg. “Hey, I’ve actually got something important to show you when we get home.”

Ethan looked surprised. “Uh, okay. What is it?”

Gavin chuckled. “You’ll just have to find out when we get there,” he said, turning back around in his seat.

Once they had helped get Ethan in his wheelchair, (he was still too weak to walk around for long, and his arm made it difficult to use crutches) they rolled up to the front door. When they were inside, Gavin turned around to both of them. “Hey, why don’t you go wait in the living room? I need to go grab something real quick.”

Ethan and Nines exchanged a look before Nines pushed Ethan into the living room, his LED going yellow for a second. While they waited for Gavin to return, Ethan turned to him. “Do you know what’s going on?” he asked.

Nines shook his head. “I honestly have no clue what Gavin is doing right now.” Nines had to admit, Gavin’s behavior was unusual, but after spending so much time seeing him smile and joke around with Ethan, it wasn’t too out of the ordinary.

“Okay, Ethan. You gotta close your eyes,” Gavin called out from another room.

“Uh, okay, I guess,” Ethan said, obeying.

Gavin slowly walked into the room holding something fuzzy. He gently put the ball of fur into Ethan’s lap. “Surprise.”

Ethan opened his eyes, which lit up when he saw that there was a tiny light brown kitten sitting on him. “What- oh my gosh!” he practically squealed, immediately petting the cat, who leaned into his touch. When it started to purr, Ethan looked up at Gavin. “Is this-”

“She’s ours to keep.”

“Seriously?” he gasped. Gavin nodded. Ethan giggled like a child when the cat rubbed up against his chest.

“Happy birthday, rat,” he said. “What do you wanna call her?”

“Oh! Um…” Ethan thought for a moment, trying to come up with a name. “What about...Stitch?” he asked, seeing that there was a tiny scar across her nose. “Hey, look, Gavin! She looks like you!” he chuckled, picking the cat up and holding her in his arms. “How’d you know I wanted a cat? I don’t think I ever told you.”

“Oh,” Gavin smirked. “A little birdie told me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Guess who decided to turn this into a series? (Yay!)
> 
> Oh boy, have I been super excited to post this last chapter! I'd be lying if I said I'm not more than a little proud of how this turned out. I'm super grateful to everyone who has stuck with me through this story, even if I didn't exactly follow my schedule all the time. (This time it was for a reason though! I'm taking a trip for the 4th of July, and I wasn't sure how good my Internet connection was going to be, so I decided to just post this early.)
> 
> Got any thoughts/questions? Feel free to express them in the comments. Rest assured I will be checking them as I continue to plan out where this big ol' saga's gonna go!
> 
> Edit: In case you missed it, [here's the link](https://forms.gle/k9w9QvctoyjeXK398) to the google form. I'd really appreciate it if you guys took the time to fill it out!


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